


Hurricane

by keykiyoshi7443



Series: 2016 In-Class Works [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, I tried?, M/M, Musicals, cursing, cuz I'm just like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 09:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8744707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keykiyoshi7443/pseuds/keykiyoshi7443
Summary: The high school AU where Jason and Dick star in a musical that no one really wanted.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hate myself, but I wrote this all in class since it started (early september) and it's finally done which is great.

“Why do you feel the need to harass me about this?” Jason growled. He was walking home from school with his best friend Roy Harper. They’d been as thick as thieves since Roy and his mother had found him on a street corner when he was 9. They had immediately taken him in, and Ms. Harper treated him like a second son.

They both attended the local public high school – Gotham Central was a nasty school – as Grade 10s. But that will be changing in the near future. “Because it’s an amazing opportunity! When does anything like this ever happen to people like us?” Roy nearly screams in exasperation. He was right. Crime Alley kids always got the short end of the stick.

“Exactly!” Jason responded, “This doesn’t happen to us. How do I know it’s not a trick?” he asked. Roy sent him a pointed look. Jason rolled his eyes, he had to admit that it _was_ pretty farfetched. You see, Jason had been offered a place at Gotham Academy. It was Gotham’s resident prep school, where all the rich kids o. But it was the best school in Gotham and one’s best shot at getting out. The only thing is that the school is very expensive.

But Jason had been offered a full scholarship, so he wouldn’t have to pay a cent as long as he kept his grades up. This was the first time in 40 years that a scholarship was offered, and it’s the first time _ever_ for someone from Crime Alley to receive such an offer. But Jason was hesitant. Taking this offer would mean that he’d have very little time for work.

Ever since Ms. Harper had taken him in, he’d been trying to find a way to pay them back. SO he’d started working odd jobs until he was old enough to land a part time job. He ever worked less than 2 jobs at one time He currently has 2 part time jobs (a barista – the one that he makes the most as a steady income with and the one he actually enjoyed the most, and intern (more like a water/coffee boy) at the GCPD and a couple off jobs, some involving some shady dealings) and he occasionally freelances.

If he accepted the offer, then he would have to drop at least one of his jobs. (Either that or renegotiate a lot of hours). He wouldn’t be able to help Ms. Harper as much as he used to. He was reluctant because they were barely making ends meet as it was. “Would I really be a good idea to accept this? You know I’d have to quit at least one of my jobs to manage school. Those classes are going to be a lot more challenging than Gotham Central’s.” he argued.

“Jason… we can support ourselves without your help. You don’t have to work all these jobs” he sighed and slowed down, a snail’s pace compared to the former almost jog they’d been doing. “This is an amazing opportunity for you, that’s most likely never going to happen again. You need to take this chance while you have it! It’s your best chance at getting out of here.”

They stopped walking. Jason looked at the round as he casually kicked a pop can that was laying on the ground in front of him. He was really tempted to take the offer, especially with Roy shooting down all of his doubts. But there was also the whole student body to worry about. They would no doubt have objections to someone of the ‘lower class’ invading their school. He knew how it would be if the situations were reversed.

One of those rich brats wouldn’t even last a day before the first attack.

But he wasn’t some prissy rich boy. He was Jason Todd and he’s survived growing up in Crime Alley. “Okay… I’ll do it” he decided. At his admission Roy’s face lit up. He grinned brightly at Jason and grabbed the other teen’s arm. He proceeded to drag Jason the rest of the way to the Harper residence, all the while yelling “mom’s going to be sooooooooo excited!”

And that’s the story of how Jason began to attend Gotham Academy.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks into class Jason discovered just how different Gotham Academy was. There was this absurd ‘anti-bullying policy’ that didn’t actually do anything for anyone. Sure, there wasn’t the physical fighting that Jason had grown used to. _That_ part of the policy was enforced. No, it was much more subtle and verbal than what he was used to. That didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared.

Despite what the majority of this school’s population thought, he wasn’t just a runt. He was intelligent, and clearly these students weren’t, considering the fact that they keep asking the teachers why he’s here. There was also the couple of students that _did_ seem to possess some intelligence that did everything in their power to get a rise out of him. Their strategy to get him to leave was sound, considering that if he stepped a toe out of line, he’d be kicked out.

But he’s not so easily baited. These little rich brats have no idea what they were dealing with. Jason was an excellent actor and he had a lot of practice dealing with people out to get him. He was smart and went to a public school in Crime Alley, of course there was always someone out to get him.

As for the acting… well the Harper household used to get regular visits from the Child Protection Service due to the one teacher that actually cared about the students, reported Jason’s injuries to them. He was forced to act like the perfect child, all the while proving his injuries were due to bullying unless he wanted Ms. Harper to lose Roy. Over the years he’d become very skilled at acting and manipulating.

Jason kept up those skills by acting differently at each of his many jobs. Dealing with a mob boss? He’s the snarky delinquent teenager that everyone expects him to be. Working with the GCPD? He’s a studious and quiet intern, happy to fetch paperwork and coffee.

The person that he was when he was a barista was the most similar to his real personality that he showed in the Harper household. He was still snarky, but he didn’t act like a delinquent. He was quiet and somewhat bookish, but inherently grumpy. Apparently it was endearing. But all of those personas held a part of his real personality to make it that much more convincing. They’re still leaps and bounds more like him than his school persona. Because Gotham Academy is known to be the school for the elite – there was a uniform and everything! – he has to act accordingly.

He became the cold emotionless student whose greatest concern was his grades. It allowed him to brush off all of the insults and whispered rumors without being out of character. People would think it’s odd if a hotheaded Neanderthal was able to brush off barbs. The instant someone called him a coward or insulted his pride he’d be expected to react violently, or at the very least defend himself. His appearance certainly didn’t help him in that manner.

While all of the rich brats that attended this school had carefully styled hair and impeccable clothes without a single wrinkle, Jason’s hair was spiky and stood up in random places and some of his bangs were white (Roy theorizes that it’s due to the fact that his mother did drugs while she was pregnant, Jason tell him he’s stupid). He had a rough look about him and a different level of maturity. He’d _had_ to grow up a lot sooner than any of his classmates.

His uniform was carefully cared for sure, but he smelled of cigarettes and lower Gotham, he even had the accent. There was also the fact that he was away more built than anyone else including the jocks. This was due to street fighting and all the different manual labor jobs that he’d done over the years. He was a tall child, he’d been able to pass as 15 ever since he was 11. It helped that most of the people who hired him really didn’t care how old he was.

That made people reluctant to approach him, the fact only helping his reputation grow. Considering the fact that this reputation made people leave him alone – he _really_ didn’t want to talk to any of these spoiled brats – he decided to just go with it. And thus he was dubbed as the school’s resident Ice Prince.

And that’s why everyone was reasonably terrified when Jason’s angry voice rang through the halls. “WHAT?!?” the shout of outrage came from the principal’s office and it was fairly obvious that it was the school’s only scholarship student and _not_ the principal. The students in the hall exchanged glances before clearing the area. Practically bolting down the halls to get to their next class.

Meanwhile the pathetic pushover of a principal was trying to calm Jason Todd. “M-Mr. T-Todd! P-Please t-try to calm d-down” the man tried to say, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. But Jason was having none of it.

“Hell no! Why is joining some stupid club mandatory?! I barely have enough time to juggle my school work and my jobs! He seethed. He had ended up cutting his hours at the GCPD to just the weekends. His hours as a barista had already worked with school; working the dinner rush hours leaving him his entire evening for school. He went on jogs – which always seemed to turn into him saving a couple of people, therefore keeping his hand to hand skills up – in the evening (read: late night) after he’d finished school work.

Leaving him roughly 5-6 hours of sleep before he had to wake up to deliver some package of goods to one of the many mob bosses he worked for, or to a client of theirs. He knew Gotham like the back of his hand, due to his nightly late night strolls. That made him perfect for a courier job, considering it was fast, easy, worked around his school schedule, and he wasn’t a known member of a gang. That could hurt his reputations in his other jobs and school. He’d made it very clear that he hadn’t wanted to actually join when they’d approached him, and making deliveries was the solution.

He was one of the best, so the bosses were willing to work around his life.

But that only left him a couple hours after school, which he usually used to either do some household chores to ease up Ms. Harper’s work load, or to work extra hours down at the station. Most of Gotham Academy’s extracurricular activities or clubs required more time than he could afford. There was only a select few that worked with his availability. Among those few as an even smaller number of clubs that wouldn’t be completely horrible to join.

But they _all_ were meeting every day for 2 hours after school. Jason had no idea why a chess club would require 10 hours of group practice each week, but to each their own, right? All Jason knew was that there was no way in hell that that would be the club he’s joining. In the end, there was really only 2 clubs that he’s be remotely interested in; glee club and musical theatre.

Now it may seem little weird for those two to be the only clubs that he’s interested in. But as stated before, Jason is good at acting. But what wasn’t made clear was the fact the he _enjoys_ it. Why else would he have crafted so many different and diverse roles for himself? He loves acting. If he’s going to be honest with himself, he knows that unless he makes it big, acting isn’t a career he can successfully live off of. And while he does have some fun with his many jobs, his goal is to one day be able to escape Gotham, and work only one job.

Acting most likely won’t let him do that. He has no delusions of grandeur. He knows he’s not the best. Even if he enjoys it, it doesn’t mean he’ll make it.

Now we’ve covered his love for acting, but music? Now that something means more to Jason than acting ever will. Music is his passion. It used to be all he had. And his singing ability was something that he truly had confidence in. So both glee club and musical theatre offered him a chance to sing. But being a glee kid was social suicide, so that probably wasn’t a good idea.

He might not be well liked but he wasn’t going to make it worse. Right now everyone basically ignored him and/or shot him dirty looks. Going to glee would make things escalate. Harmful rumors could reach the ears of faculty and because of where he came from they’d automatically assume that it was true and expel him. If he wanted any chance of getting out of Gotham the he couldn’t afford to get expelled.

So it looks like he would be joining he musical theatre club. After taking a deep breath to calm down, he told the principal that he would be joining the musical theatre club and that he would be auditioning that next week – because this is some stupid prep school, all clubs required and audition of sorts (how would that even work for a chess club???); the musical theatre club requires small script reading from a popular/famous play or movie and a song/dance – because he still has some ‘affairs’ to clear up.

Then he promptly turned on his heel and stalked out of the office. The sound of the door clicking shut echoed loudly in the silent halls. No one bothered him for the rest of the day out of fear of having him blow up at _them_.

 

* * *

 

“Isn’t this a good thing?” Roy asked as he lay on the floor. Jason was ranting about his day while they did homework. Well, Jason was doing his work, Roy was procrastinating. This is usually the time where Roy played the unofficial psychologist. “I mean you love to perform right? You should totally audition for this year’s play!” he continued. While what he said was true, Jason was still bitter about the fact that he’s forced to join.

“Yeah but now I’m sacrificing working hours! I had only so many hours of down time now I have almost none. I may enjoy performing but what is the likelihood of one of those preppy teachers actually picking me, the street rat, over just about everyone else? They have a counsel for all of the performing arts composed of both students and teachers. Newsflash, but they all hate me!” he grumbled.

Even if he did end up being perfect for a role, he’d most likely never make it on stage. He was _that_ unpopular. The thing that he was the most upset about was that he was forced to go every day. It was kind of ridiculous. Roy rolled his eyes, stop that right ow. You work more than both me and my mom combined. You do know we’re not that desperate, right? You need to relax. Enjoy high school! Live a little!”

Jason ruffled his metaphorical feathers. He lives plenty. He went out on ‘patrol’ – as Roy liked to call it – and he’d actually become quite the adrenaline junkie. That’s part of the reason he’d taken up tumbling. He enjoyed controlled falls, and in his opinion, it made him more badass. “Whatever” he grumbled, glaring as Roy smirked in satisfaction. “But I need help with my audition pieces. I need a monologue, something to show off my dance/tumbling talent and a song.”

Roy’s answering grin was positively terrifying.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the week went by without anything noteworthy actually happening. During the week and over the weekend he worked on his audition whenever he had the time. When Monday came, he felt he was adequately prepared.

As soon as his last class was over, he grabbed his things and headed down to the school’s auditorium. Unlike the failed glee club that was essentially exiled to the music room, the musical theatre club was allowed free reign. The musical theatre club put a musical every year where the two most popular students got the leads. The school always made a lot of money off of ticket and merchandise/spirit wear sales, so the faculty was very lenient with them.

Although there was a rumor that there would be a new director coming all the way from New York. But it was only a rumor and Jason wasn’t going to hold his breath. While playing a lead would look good on a resume, this rumored new director would probably turn out exactly like the last one. He mentally rolled his eyes as he entered the auditorium.

As expected, the entire club, as well as all of the faculty even remotely involved, were present. This was most likely a pathetic attempt at intimidating him. But he was a street fighter, and most importantly a Crime Alley kid. He’d seen _children_ more intimidating than these teachers. It was almost laughable really. This attempt was most likely a precaution to weed out all of those with stage fright.

Jason was an actor. Even if he was scared or nervous, they’d never know. He plastered on an emotionless mask and calmly strolled down the center isle and elegantly hopped on the stage. Turning towards the audience, he raised an eyebrow at them. “Well what do you want to see first?” he drawled. Some of the students looked uncomfortable, and Jason immediately singled them out as back stage crew. They clearly didn’t have the confidence to be a performer, but they were still key members of the club.

Jason held a great amount of respect for the backstage crew. They were the ones who pretty much makes or breaks a production. The special effects and sets are very important for a good performance. And sound is what makes a _great_ performance. It’s not what he wants to do, but he’s resigned himself to working with the shy kids for the rest of the year. That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t planning on proving his skills with his audition.

“If you could do the monologue first?” an unknown voice said. He scanned the audience until he found the source. It was an unknown adult that through logic deduced was the rumored new director. This will be interesting. He gave the man a sharp nod before speaking once more.

“My monologue, song, and required physical element is all in one piece I do hope that that’s okay” he said, allowing a bit of bite to creep into his tone. Although he carefully masked it with a charming smile. It must not have been as charming as he originally though because some of the more skittish back stage crew members flinched and shrank back. The unknown director simply nodded at him and gestured for him to start.

Jason then proceeded to remove his tie and blazer, rolling up the sleeves of his shit and unbuttoned a few of the top buttons. He’d checked the slack of his pants to make sure that they wouldn’t rip during his routing the night before. They hadn’t ripped during the routine yet, so he thinks he’ll be fine. He got some weird looks from some of the teachers, but the club members that looked a little more athletic seemed to have an idea of what’s going on.

He calmly dug through his backpack and pulled out a small Bluetooth speaker that he’d modified the year before to be more powerful – and the cellphone he kept his music on. Roy currently had the other one, even though Jason was the one paying.

He set them both along the edge of the stage beside his backpack and selected the track that he would be using. There was a couple of seconds before the cue to start speaking and he used this time to introduce himself and his song. “Hello, my name is Jason Todd and today I’ll be performing part of the [Cell Block Tango](https://youtu.be/ziA1TGNXktY) from the musical Chicago.”

He pasted on a devilish smirk and got into position as the pre-recorded backup vocals began. “My sister, Veronica and I, had this double act. And my husband, Charlie, traveled around with us.” He drawled, posing as if he held a cigarette in his hand. He just oozed sassiness in this moment and he smirked widely as if he owned the stage.

“Now for the last number in our act, we did 20 acrobatic tricks in a row One, two, three, four, five… splits, spread eagles, back flips, flip fops” he said as he stalked around the stage every bit as confident as the character he was playing. “One right after the other” he continued, stopping at the center of the stage. The he extended his leg and bent over as if he was going to slip but he merely spun on the spot with his leg extended in a perfect vertical split over his head for a split (pun totally intended – blame Roy) second.

He was imitating the choreography from the 2015 Broadway Backwards performance. That choreography was challenging enough that it would be impressive for a high schooler. Even the knowledge that this choreography existed was impressive.

Jason doubts that any of his peers actually even knew this _song_ existed. After righting himself and resuming his cocky stance, he continued his monologue. “Well this one night we were in the hotel Cicero, the three of us, boozin’ and having a few laughs” he purrs. The more nervous students looked even more uncomfortable. He let out a small giggle that was just on this side of cruel and insane.

“And we run out of ice” his smile drops from his face. “So I go out and get some. I come back, open the door, and there’s Veronica and Charlie, doing number 17” he stood still and then he lifted his leg up and straightened I out until he was standing while essentially doing the splits. His leg fully straightened out when the music cue came and there was an audible gasp from the audience.

“How’s he doing _that_ in those pants?” he heard one of the girl’s whisper to her friend. Jason smirked, very satisfied by the audience. Although the gleam in the unknown director’s eyes worried him a bit. That didn’t promise anything good. Hopefully it will work out in his favor.

“The spread eagle” he growled, maintaining his position. “Well I was in such a state of shock I completely blacked out. I can’t remember a thing” he claimed innocently. “It wasn’t until I was washing the blood off my hands that I even knew they were _dead_ he growled, rolling his ankle when he said ‘washing the blood’.

Then he dropped out of the position as the main song and dance began. _“He had it coming, he had it coming, he had it coming all along!”_ he began to sing, his voice rich and filled with anger and other emotions, conveying the feeling of the song. He leapt up on his toes and tucked a leg behind himself as he spun around. _“I didn’t do it, but if I’d done it! How could you tell me that I was wrong?”_ he growled, jumping and striking poses. He even flipped and pulled a couple tumbling moves. Then he continued, this time singing along and against the pre-recorded background singers.

 

_They had it coming [they had it coming]_

_They had it coming [they had it coming]_

_They had it coming [they took a flower]_

_All along [in its prime]_

_I didn’t do it [and then they used it]_

_But if I’d done it [and they abused it]_

_How could you tell me [it was a murder]_

_That I was wrong [but now a crime]_

 

He danced and sang and got lost in the performance. Flips and acrobatic moves came naturally as he poured his heart and emotions into the song. As he sang the last note he froze breathing heavily. His eyes came to rest on the group of people watching his audition and he had to suppress a satisfied smirk.

Some of the more athletic looking students – most likely the dancers or students trying to be a triple threat – were gaping at him openly. A couple other students were glaring at him – most like likely due to the fact that he could sing and dance; they didn’t look like they could dance. The backstage kids stared at him in awe, similar to a child watching any live performance. It was gratifying.

After taking in the reactions of the students he turned his gaze to the faculty. They seemed just as shocked as their students. He couldn’t really blame them either. This performance is very unlike both of his stereotypes (soulless Ice Prince and Crime Alley Neanderthal). Anyone who’d ever seen this piece new that it was typical sung by a female. It was a very bold move to perform this.

The fact that he pulled it off all the while executing perfect acrobatic feats. It’s impressive for any age. The fact that he’s male and a teenager just makes it that much more impressive. His eyes finally came to rest on the unknown director. If he’d been uneasy about this man’s plans before ten now he was almost afraid. The fancy new director had an almost sinister smile on his face. He looked like a cat that caught a canary.

After finishing his assessment of the audience’s reaction he gracefully fell out of his ending position and delivered a quick bow. This seemed to unfreeze everyone and they began clapping. Some more enthusiastically than others, but still. He suppressed a grin as he waited for the director’s critique.

“Well I have to say that was a rather… inspiring performance, Mr. Todd. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’d be happy to have you in our club.” He said clapping his hands together and looking at the other teachers. After receiving no objections he turned to stare expectantly at Jason.

He cocked his head to the side, “of course sir. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be late for work. I’ll see you all here tomorrow.” He picked up his things and slung his backpack over one shoulder and his blazer and tie over the other. Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

 

* * *

 

You could say Dick’s life’s pretty interesting. He grew up as an acrobat in a circus along with his family. But then a horrible accident happened and his entire family was wiped out in a freak fall. Dick had been left all alone after watching his parents die right in front of him.

Luckily, for him, billionaire Bruce Wayne had been sitting in the audience that night. He apparently felt that Dick was a kindred spirit due to their shared misery, and decided to adopt him. And so, Dick grew up as the adopted acrobat son of Bruce Wayne. Despite popular belief, Bruce was an excellent father.

He hadn’t stopped at adopting just Dick either. Only a couple years after, he’ adopted Timothy Drake. His parents had died of an illness and because the Wayne family had always been close friends with the Drake family, he adopted Tim right away. A month after that he’d adopted Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. Then a year after that Talia Al-Ghul revealed that Bruce had a biological son by basically dumping the small 10 year old boy on the Wayne’s doorstep.

Bruce immediately welcomed him into the fold and they were one big family. The adopted brood were close in age (Dick being 15 now, Tim 13, Cassandra ‘Cass’ and Stephanie 12 and Damian bringing up the rear at 10), so they were almost more friends/best friends than brothers and sisters; but they made it work.

So Dick was in his second year of high school and he’d gotten used to his new life and how things were in the upper class. He’d even made a friend of the commissioner’s daughter Barbara Gordon. Bruce had been kind enough to pay for her to go to Gotham Academy so at least he had one genuine friend in the school.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t have friends. Quite the opposite actually. He was one of the most popular people in the school. And it wasn’t even just because he was adopted by Bruce Wayne! Apparently he was quite the charming man; he never had any problems with making people like him. But there was only about 7 people other than Barbara that he actually considered friends.

Sean Davids was an athletic guy. He was your typical blonde blue eyed boy and he loved to play basketball. Despite his jock status he was actually really good at math and a member of the school’s mathletes along with Dick. Secretly he was obsessed with anime and his close friends mocked him about it all of the time.

Sylph Holendale was a very artistic person. She loved anything that had to do with creating art, needless to say she was a very colorful person. Her favorite character and inspiration is Penelope Garcia from _Criminal Minds_. She’d never even watched the show, but the one time she’d seen a gif set of the tech analyst she’d fallen in love. She was short and she’d dyed her hair in a gradient from bubblegum pink to royal purple. She was on the art committee that created the set for the musical theatre club.

Emily Chang was a dancer. She wanted to be a professional ballerina when she grew up, to the displeasure of her stereotypical Asian parents. She had the skill to do it too. She was easily the best dancer out of the entire school. She was tall and had her hair in a pixie cut. You might think that it wouldn’t suit her, but it worked well with her no nonsense attitude.

Jeremy Karnac was your typical nerd. He loved playing video games online and watching _Mythbusters_. He had a passion for science, math and special effects. He was part of the musical theatre club (s backstage crew) and he was the leader of the chess club. He looked like a stereotypical nerd as well, it was really unfortunate. He had long wavy ginger hair and tick framed glasses.

…Wow he had a lot of friends in the musical theatre club…

…anyways…

Ethan Jones was exactly how everyone imagined a prep school student to be. He came from a family of old money and his appearance was always perfect, not a hair out of place. He was serious about schoolwork and he had a charming smile. He was planning on going to medical school, but secretly wanted to own a small diner or work with CPS to help the children of Gotham. As it is, his plan is t open up a free clinic in Crime Alley.

Miranda Beauman was ‘a star’. She absolutely loved to sing. She’d take every chance possible to shove her talent in someone’s face. She was completely obsessed with vocal music and she wasn’t even a little bit ashamed. She didn’t know how to read music, but that didn’t stop her from proclaiming that she was the best singer in the school. She was the leader of the glee club and she would have taken over the musical theatre club if her audition hadn’t been rejected. She just wasn’t what they were looking for. She declared that she were simply too ignorant to see talent when it’s right in front of them.

It doesn’t stop her from auditioning for every musical they do.

And last but not least, there was Jessica Hamiblou. She was a charming girl with thick curly black hair, hazel eyes, and she was always wearing an oversized sweatshirt. She is an introverted little bookworm who loved to write and always had her nose stuck in a book. She was shy, but she was always willing to help someone. She loved reading scripts.

With his friends and Barbara’s help, he was surviving Gotham Academy with relative ease. He had just gotten used to the ins and outs of the school, when everything changed. The announcement that the school would be welcoming its first scholarship student in 40 years. It was practically unheard of. If people thought Dick’s arrival was unexpected than this certainly took the cake.

If that wasn’t enough, there was also the fact that it was some Crime Alley nobody. Now _that_ shocked everyone. It was unheard of to have the lower Gothamites mingle with the upper class. The students preferred to believe that they were better than the lower class and o=to disassociate themselves from the horror and grime of the heart of Gotham.

The student body would most likely have had less of an issue if it had been a middle class Gothamite. Heck, they accepted him pretty easily (admittedly he had a likeable personality) and he was a circus gypsy kid! But this new guy comes from _Crime Alley_. It, as its name implies, is filled with crime and criminals. This new kid became the talk of the school and they hadn’t even seen him yet! All they knew for sure was that he was a Grade 10 and his name was Jason Todd.

From all the things he’d heard of the people of central Gotham, he expected the student to be a gangster with a ratty appearance who smoked and did drug deals as a job. They expected muscled Neanderthal with little education and piercings.

They weren’t completely wrong.

The teen that walked in was clearly a fighter. He was strong, but not overly muscled, more like an anime swimmer. He was lean and walked with purpose and confidence. His gait was like that of a predator. He had sharp features and pale skin, characteristics of lower Gotham. His hair was pitch black with a shockingly white lock of air in the bangs. It was spiked in a gravity defying way that looked effortless and natural.

But his eyes were the most fascinating. They were a bizarre mix of green and blue, creating a beautiful shade of teal. But the look in his eyes was worrying. They were weary and guarded constantly scanning the area of any sort of threat. He clutched the strap of his backpack (he had it slung over one shoulder) with one hand in a relaxed yet tense manner. He was ready to rip the bag off his shoulder and use it as a weapon. His other hand rested in his pocket.

Outwardly to anyone who didn’t know what to look for, he seemed completely at ease. But Dick – he’d been kidnapped more than enough times to begin to understand body language, and let’s not forget he was circus kid. He needed to know which people would tip him if he did a trick – did know what to look for and he saw an ever ready to fight, and very guarded boy.

He looked like he fit in, in these halls. His uniform was perfect ad he held himself with the same confidence and grace that they had all been taught. He looked like them – albeit a little rougher around the edges, and Dick was willing to bet that he had an accent that most of the high profile students would never even hear – but at the same time he stood out. His face was too cool, too blank and emotionless.

Despite popular belief, the students at Gotham academy were not soulless automatons. They were in fact quite the lively bunch. It was most likely an over compensation because they had to act all proper at home and in front of guests/outsiders. Jason wasn’t like that at all. He stared at them with looks of disdain on his features as he walked towards the principal’s office.

His eyes held with cold intelligence and Dick wanted to slap himself for forgetting that he got in because of his grades. Of course he wasn’t a Neanderthal. Sometimes Dick could be very stupid. He knew and accepted this, but still. He tried to talk to him a couple times in the hallways, but he’d been brushed off. Later he’d find out that Jason seemed to have a hatred for both rich and popular people. With Dick being the school’s Golden Boy, it kind of made sense as to why Jason was avoiding him. It also made sense for Jason to dislike both the rich and the popular.

He grew up in Crime Alley, almost everyone (he knows that he’s being optimistic here) hates the upper class there. Jason seems to be pretty well off though. It wasn’t like he’d spent time on the streets or anything. It probably wasn’t that strong of a hatred. But he was a smart kid in a school filled with would be criminals. Good grades don’t matter to them. He was most likely given trouble for being ‘weak’ and ‘nerdy’. Although Jason did look like he could handle anything they tried to throw at him. It makes sense why he’d hate the top dogs of the school.

That did nothing to stop Dick’s growing fascination with the scholarship student.

It was the beginning to become very noticeable or so his friends said. They took any and every chance they could to make fun of him for his ‘crush’. He’d argue that it was just taking interest, but he eventually caved and admitted that it was a crush when he found himself gushing about how pretty Jason’s eyes were.

That didn’t make the mocking stop either. If anything it got worse.

And so, he was destined to watch from afar as Jason was tormented. Jason never rose to the bait, but that didn’t stop Dick from worrying that one day he would. It had been a month already and the insults had only gotten worse. “Hey criminal” one of the other group of popular people (he was a jock, the quarter back of their championship winning football team) called out as Jason passed. Arthur Gilbert was a tall guy, almost 6’1” tall. He had generic brown hair and eyes. His father was the CEO of a clothing company that had its main building in Gotham. He was bully who enjoyed tormenting people usually the nerds of the school.

He was one of Jason’s main tormentors and he’d been getting more and more frustrated every time Jason brushed him off without reacting. His barbs had been getting increasingly vicious. The week before he’d invented a cruel nickname. He’d begun calling Jason ‘criminal’ because that’s what ‘he’ll become’ according to statistics. Jason just sneers and walks way, but he can tell it’s beginning to get to him. Dick wants to help, but he doesn’t know what to do.

“How’s your mommy? I bet she committed suicide because she was so ashamed to have _you_ for a son. I bet after your daddy walked out on both of you she kicked you out!” he said, very loudly. Everyone stopped talking and walking as soon as they saw Jason freeze. This is the first time he hadn’t just ignored an insult. He stood stock still, his back facing everyone.

Dick winced, that was a low blow and everyone knew it. The whole hallway was practically holding their breath, waiting impatiently for someone to say _something_. Dick wanted to intervene but Emily’s grip on his arm was like a vic. Jason slowly pivoted on his heel and sent a glare at Arthur. If looks could kill, Arthur would have been 6 feet under by now. “Gilbert, was it” Jason stated as he took a single step towards the group of jocks.

He wasn’t asking. He knew full well who the quarter back was. Dick got that awful feeling in his stomach. You know the feeling you get right before your teacher or a parent dresses you down and gives you a lecture. The feeling when you know you’re going to hear something bad, something you didn’t want to know.

“Why don’t you pat yourself on the back, you’ve hit the nail right on the head!” he said after a pause. Dick could pinpoint the exact moment when the blood began to drain from Arthur’s face, leaving it ashen and pale. A cruel smirk then begun to form on his face, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “My mother was a drug addict who overdosed when I was 9. Dad was never in the picture. You know what happens to a 9 year old in Crime Alley”. He said, almost playfully.

But then his smirk turned all that sharper as he continued, taking a couple more steps towards the group of jocks surrounding Arthur like guards. “Oh wait, you don’t. Your rich daddies protect you from the horrors of lower Gotham, all the while making our lives worse one ignorant teen at a time” his smile turned poisonous. “You’d do well not to say something like that to anyone else form Crime Alley. They won’t be nearly as polite as me!” he grinned, a smile that was all teeth, and then he swept out of the hall.

As soon as the sounds of his footfalls were no longer audible everyone unfroze and let out the breath they were holding. Dick shakily unlatched Emily from his arm. He was shaking lightly, even though he couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. Jason hadn’t raised his voice even once, and yet he couldn’t have been more terrifying in that moment. His smile held no kindness, only cruelty.

But it didn’t reach his eyes.

They’d been completely dead while he’d snapped at the jocks. Even Bruce who was an incredibly closed off man held more emotion in his eyes. Jason had completely shut down all of his emotions. And that made Dick so incredibly sad. What had Jason been through that he needed to learn how to shut down like that? They were only 15, they shouldn’t have to do that.

And that’s when everyone began calling Jason the Ice Prince. Prince, being meant to mock his status is life, but also his superior attitude. What a pair they would make, the Golden Boy and the Ice Prince.

 

* * *

 

And so life goes on. Jason continued to get used to life at Gotham Academy and Dick continued to watch from afar. Although apparently he hadn’t been paying all that much attention lately because he was completely shocked when he heard that Jason had screamed at the principal. After the whole incident with Arthur, Jason had been even more careful with how he acted. To hear he lost control was very surprising.

When he question people, no one seemed to know why Jason yelled and then stormed out of the office – although that second part was pure speculation because everyone had run in fear due to his voice actually being above the usual level of sound. He supposes it surprised a lot of people that Jason had an outdoors voice.

 

* * *

 

“Omgomgomg!” Sylph gushed as soon as she saw Dick about a week after the whole ‘Jason screaming’ incident had gone down. Nothing seemed to have happened, so both Sylph and Emily rushing towards him and gushing about _someone_ was odd. He raised his hands in a placating gesture and requested that they slow down and go one at a time.

Sylph took a deep breath before beginning again. “You know how Jason screamed at the principal?” Dick nodded and gestured for her to continue. “Well I know why. It turns out that Jason had only then been informed about the fact that you have to join a club. Guess what club he chose? The musical theatre club!” she shrieked gleefully.

“Really? Wow… don’t you have to audition to get in thought? What did he audition with?” Dick raised an eyebrow in a poor imitation of Alfred, the ever faithful English butler. Despite many hours of his day being dedicated to stalking Jason, he has no idea what Jason would even audition for. He just didn’t seem like the type to join musical theatre.

This is where Emily butted in. “At first I thought he was going to audition for back stage crew, because come on, what else is he going to do? But the he started undressing –“ she cut herself off to slap Dick upside the head for drooling. “Not like that you pervert! He removed his blazer and tie for ease of movement. And then he began his monologue.”

“He did Velma’s monologue from Chicago’s Cell Block Tango and the following chorus” Sylph practically squealed. That fact caught the attention of the rest of the group of friend. “His dancing and singing were flawless! It was like he was a completely different person!” Emily continued.

Miranda looked skeptical, arguing that the choreography is too difficult to properly sing, but she was shot down by Jeremy. “I’ve heard you sing Miranda, but your set of pipes have nothing on this guy. He projected across the auditorium while doing flips and splits. The confidence… it was something else.” He drifted off. “It was something that you had to see to believe.”

Now Miranda looked annoyed. “Please, you just don’t know what true talent is. I doubt he’s actually as good as you say he is” she huffed. Everyone rolled their eyes. Crazy Miranda strikes again. Ever since she’d watched glee she’d been obsessed with one Rachel Berry. She seemed to think that if she emulated her, then her life would be just as successful. (She’d been ecstatic when she found out Dick was gay _and_ a decent singer because he could be the Kurt to her Rachel. Dick wisely said nothing about it and let her have her fantasy).

The group just went with it. It made life easier.


	2. Chapter 2

And that’s the first few months of the school year went. People continued to rib Jason about his origins, and Dick continued to watch from afar. The first would continue of course, but the second was about to change because the annual school musical had finally rolled around and this was Dick’s chance to get closer to Jason.

Everyone knew that the most popular kids always got the lead, so both Arthur and Dick were heavily pressured by their peers to audition for lead roles. Especially Dick considering the fact that he had 3 friends in the musical theatre club. This year they would be putting on a modified production of the musical Death Note.

There was apparently some hotshot director from New York who wanted to put on an English production but was only able to get the rights to a couple of the songs. Instead he decided to re-write the entire play but still loosely basing it off of both real life and Death Note so the songs still work.

It is a love story (despite what appeared to be popular opinion) between a vigilante/serial killer and a detective. Apparently the director thought that Light had been really gay for L and he wanted to keep that. Basically, there was a serial killer known as the Red Hood making his name known by killing criminals without leaving any evidence. The criminal’s cause of death was always a single gunshot to the head execution style. The massive body count and the complete lack of evidence forced the GCPD (it is set in Gotham) to call in the international professional detective Nightwing.

Nightwing works with a team of volunteers (one of them being a rookie detective who goes by Robin aka the Red Hood) to try and track down the serial killer. Along the way he falls in love with the brash but kind rookie detective. Robin manipulating his feelings in an effort to inflict maximum damage. One day they catch the Red Hood in action and he rips off his helmet revealing his identity and crushing Nightwing’s heart. Then he shoots himself in the head and the play ends with Nightwing sobbing silently over Robin/Red hood’s corpse.

It was quite the morbid ending, but then again, who didn’t like a Shakespearean ending? Everyone was getting kind of tired of the whole ‘good wins over evil – live happily ever after’ thing. Tragedies were popular now. Of course the ending wasn’t the problem some of the students and parents had with the play. It was mainly the fact that the love story was between two males. But it was a school with an anti-bullying policy and is supposedly accepting of the gay community. That was actually one of the reason Gotham Academy had such a good reputation.

So no one was allowed to kick up a fuss.

Of course Miranda complained about the lack of female lead and how the only officially female character was the annoying intern who had a major crush on Nightwing. Dick pointed out that she had her own lesbian side affair with a petty criminal that was almost always in a holding cell, but she didn’t really care.

Dick and the rest of them stopped trying to convince her and just focused on their own auditions. And by that, it really means Dick’s audition. Barbara planned on auditioning for a member of Nightwing’s team, and Miranda was going for the role of Diana the intern (despite how much she complained, at least Diana had a song or two). Dick didn’t really think that he could pull off any of the characters but Emily and Sylph seemed pretty convinced that he could make a perfect Nightwing. With a lot of help from his friends he felt pretty okay by the time audition day came around.

The thing with the auditions is that everybody is welcome to audition. Therefore, the auditions had to be short or they’d never get done – so the audition was a single song. Usually all of the musical theatre kids were present and helped decide who gets what part. Although if they are auditioning for a part, then they will obviously abstain from voting for the decision of that character.

 

_I’m here now_

_It’s clear now_

_You’re near now!_

 

Miranda sang, finishing her heart breaking (can you hear the sarcasm?) rendition of [I’ll Only Love You More](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KITgFH4ZyEY) from the New York Demo. Her character Diana was based off the character Misa from Death Note. This is one of the few songs that had managed to make it into the new version. Admittedly she did a great job, and Dick was almost 100% sure she would get the part. She certainly had the lungs for it.

There was 3 more people before it was Dick’s turn and he anxiously waited in an aisle seat. Checking his copy of the audition order, he was surprised to see both Arthur and Jason were before him. And they were both auditioning for the same part; the Red Hood. He turned his worried gaze to where Jason was sitting across the aisle amongst the other members of the musical theatre club.

He knew that Jason was very talented (his friend simply wouldn’t shut up about his vocal talent) but he also knew that Arthur had a powerful voice that would suit the character Robin. Arthur strolled on stage confidently along with 4 of his friends. “Hello my name is Arthur Gilbert and I’ll be audition for the roe of the Red Hood/Robin. I’ll be singing ‘[Where is the Justice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL2f44geLz4)’ from the New York Demo” he introduced himself elegantly, fitting his high status. Then he signaled somewhere offstage and the music began.

 

_Where is the Justice_

_When the guilty all go free?_

_Why don’t we lock them up_

_And throw away the key?_

 

His voice was smooth and controlled, his features twisted into an arrogant smirk. Dick wasn’t sure how much of that smirk was Robin’s and how much was his own confidence. Standing up on that stage he looked every bit as smug as a high class student. This was when one of his friends cut in, singing the part of a teacher, or I this case a GCPD captain.

 

_I see a young man’s anger_

_Burning in your eyes_

 

Arthur merely sneered at the other teen and continued singing.

 

_What you see is my impatience_

_With your noble compromise_

_Show me what’s right_

_About the wrongs that we allow_

_Real people need to feel protected_

_Here and now_

_The whole damn system’s broken_

_Way beyond repair_

_It’s just law_

_Not law and order_

_Not much good and seldom fair_

 

Arthur got into the song ad if Dick didn’t know better, he’d think that Arthur fit the role of the unfortunate lower class orphan detective. He was filled with that much righteous anger. Then another one of the teens began to sing his part, looking confused and like he was desperately trying to convince his fellow ‘detective’.

 

_Laws were made for everyone_

_We’re treated all the same_

 

Arthur rolled his eyes theatrically and responded sassily.

 

_‘till a lawyer’s tricks convict the blame_

_Let the corporation_

_Make the regulations_

_And all go unaccountable_

_When everything goes wrong_

_But the rich and famous_

_Get away with murder_

_Every time a high priced mouthpiece starts to talk_

_His client gets a walk_

_Tell me where is the justice?_

_If there’s any justice_

_Where is the justice_

_For all the victims?_

_Where is the justice?_

_What god is law that can’t punish those who break it?_

 

Admittedly the character did have a point. The musical was designed to make you choose a side; Kira or L, Red Hood or Nightwing, justice or the law. The remaining two teens took a step forward, preparing to sing their parts in agreement with the cynical detective.

 

_Politicians make their speeches all day long_

_While judges pushing pencils_

_Mostly get it wrong_

_Instead of loopholes for the law_

_To fall between_

_That a good old fashioned payback_

_Grease the wheels of a machine_

 

Arthur took a step forward, standing in line with the other four teens.

 

_Isn’t everybody sick to death of all this stuff?_

_Can’t we all stand up and say enough?_

_Listen to the families_

_Hiding in their houses_

_All of them afraid to walk the street at night_

_With all the doors locked tight_

_We must give them their justice_

_We owe them some justice_

_Where is the justice?_

 

As he belted out the last lines, Dick couldn’t help but think he looked wrong on stage. He had an amazing voice _and_ stage presence but he didn’t fit the character. He might have been able to play Robin, the brash detective obsessed with catching the bad guy and justice. But he couldn’t play the Red Hood, the boy who’d been so completely betrayed by the justice system that he was forced to deal with out his own justice in the only way he knew.

He couldn’t play the abused teen fighting back. It just looked wrong on him.

Dick didn’t get much longer to ponder why Arthur was wrong for the character because the group had vacated the stage and Jason had taken their place. “My name is Jason Todd and I’ll be auditioning for the role of the Red Hood and Robin. The song I will be performing is [Hurricane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk8dajYOAns), performed by [Hong Kwang Ho](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W2FvV2hJNo) in the Korean version of Death Note’s musical” he stated sharply.

Dick raised an eyebrow. He had also chosen a song not done in the New York Demo. Although he hadn’t heard ‘Hurricane’ yet. He looked forward to this performance although he found it a little hard to see Jason as anything else other than ice cold. He heard a couple people giggle around him and he resisted the urge to glare at all of them as Jason cued the music. A piano started to play a haunting melody and as soon as the clear notes began to ring through the air Jason’s entire demeanor changed.

One moment he was bland and emotionless, the next he was an uncertain young adult who had just killed for the first time.

 

_I just can’t believe it_

_Surely I am dreaming_

_I actually killed him_

_With this pen and pad_

_I cannot believe it_

_Yet I am not dreaming_

_I now have to burn this sinister notebook_

_But eventually every evildoer_

_They all must be eliminated_

 

His voice was smooth and somewhat uncertain. The nervousness of the character showing beautifully on his face. His demeanor transitioned into a look of wonder. As if he was seeing the world for the first time.

 

_And yet how strange_

_That now the world_

_Shines finally beautiful_

_And so the streets are now filled with bright smiles_

_What if by chance or divine right_

_This notebook has the power to save the world!_

 

As he grew louder on the last note you could hear the power and conviction in his voice. It was like he had just fallen out of despair and realized that he could actually _do_ something. His demeanor shifted yet again but this time he was angry and vengeful, filled with righteous fury and determination.

 

_No this is not a dream_

_I must believe it now_

_I have been chosen_

_To cleanse this world of sin_

_Not this is not a dream_

_And this hellish world_

_It shall be overturned_

_It is judgement day_

_Souls may scream_

_Even ones I care for_

_Even my own but I’ll not relent_

_I’ve decided to sacrifice_

_My soul to create a just world_

_For the sake of whose hearts are true_

_For you I’ll endure all of the agony_

_Only I can do it_

_No one else_

_Only I_

 

Jason’s voice rang through the auditorium. It was filled with conviction, and in that moment Dick could see it. This song was absolutely perfect for the character – bot the Red Hood and Kira – and the way Jason was singing the song was perfect. Dick could see Jason growing up and becoming the Red hood. He had the same origins as the character and he was able to pull off the emotions perfectly.

 

_Now the means to deliver_

_Righteous judgement is in my hands_

_And I shall reconstruct_

_The whole world to my will_

 

This song suited the character’s transformation from an agent of justice to an agent of vengeance. It allowed everyone to see a lot more of the Red Hood than ‘Where is the Justice’ could. It showed a depth in the character that the cynical song just couldn’t. In Dick’s opinion Jason was a better Red hood than Arthur.

 

_I’ve decided to sacrifice_

_My soul to create a just world_

_For the sake of whose hearts are true_

_Forever!_

_Shall be a world_

_For pure of heart_

_I’ll not allow the wicked to live anymore_

_They all must die_

_By God’s will_

_Yes y my will_

_They all must die_

_I will become the god of this new world!_

 

It was a little dark for a high school play, but then again this was Gotham. And the entire musical was pretty dark. Dick hoped that they would use this song in the musical. It really gave you an insight to the character and his motivations. (The musical was still unfinished, so songs were kind of up in the air right now) Jason had a cocky smirk on his face, and he held it for a second before completely shutting down and going back to a stoic expression.

He’d looked so alive when he was performing it was hard to reconcile that with the Jason standing on the stage right now. After seeing the glee dancing in Jason’s eyes he fell in love just a little bit more.

Jason gave a quick 45 degree bow and went back to his seat. Dick was so distracted by his awe do Jason’s performance and his thought, she didn’t even hear the guy who went next. He vaguely heard him say he was auditioning for the cop who was convinced that Robin was a dirty cop. He only broke out of his own thoughts when he heard the director call “next!”

He sighed as he stood up and made his way towards the stage. There was no way that he could top Jason’s audition even if he was the first (and probably only) person auditioning for Nightwing.

 

* * *

 

Jason felt like he’d done a good job of that audition. It had been a little hard to suppress the glee he felt when performing, but he thinks he did a good enough job. Playing the character of Red Hood felt like slipping on a second skin. It was complete natural and actually very similar to his actual personality. He had a sneaking suspicion that the director based the Red Hood off of him.

That suspicion was only strengthened by the twinkle in the director’s eye when he saw Jason auditioning for the lead. There was also the fact that he chose to drop the act around the musical theatre club because making a new persona was too much work. He had decided to just act like he did at the coffee shop he worked at. People had actually started to talk to him as if he was a normal person.

He’d even made friends with a couple backstage kids and a dancer. A dancer named Emily had practically bombarded him with questions concerning his dance in his audition. She then proceeded to drag him towards her two other friends. Sylph was an artist and Jeremy was a special effects guy. Sylph was loud, Emily was kind of annoying and Jeremy really didn’t talk all that much, but they were good friends.

The point is that only the musical theatre club knows enough about him to see him in the Red Hood.

Even though the role was practically made for him, he was almost 100% sure that he wouldn’t get the role because it was sort of tradition to have the popular students get the leads. Even though he was a theatre kid now, doesn’t mean that they’ll vote for him over someone else. He had to admit that he was a bit disappointed when freaking Arthur Gilbert auditioned for Robin. He was good too.

He didn’t let that stop him from putting his all into the song. But now it was Dick Grayson’s turn to audition. He was the other most popular student in the school. He was the golden boy that everyone loved. But whenever he was I the same room he could feel Dick’s stare. He had asked Sylph and Emily about it since they were also friends with Grayson, but they’d just giggled. Especially when he’d asked if Dick hated him.

He was no doubt going to audition for Nightwing. He certainly had the body type to be able to pull off the stunts that the director mention in passing that he’d like to put in. As soon as he saw Dick stand on that stage and announce his name, he knew that he was perfect for the role of Nightwing. If the absolutely gleeful loo on the director’s face said anything, then he agreed.

“I’ll be doing a cover of [The Game Begins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncev5V9xyog) performed by [Kim Junsu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnPr_lOHw6g) in the Korean version of Death Note. Then he took a step forward, cued the music, and began to sing with a passion suiting his character.

 

_A mirror that is reflecting_

_An angry heart_

_Empty play on words of the voice_

_Crying out for justice_

_You are a hypocrite_

_Pretending to be a martyr_

_Inside your chest is just a fake cross_

 

His voice is both smooth and raspy. He sounds both awkward and patronizing and yet it works fr the character.

 

_Covered eyes that cannot see_

_Into the darkness_

_Painting whatever you please_

_Shoving off like you know everything_

_Pretending to be the savior_

 

He was calm, and yet you could still hear the sarcastic bite at the end of the last sentence. He was a perfect detective, adding just enough sarcasm to piss off who he was speaking to while still remaining outwardly indifferent. A polite mask.

 

_Let’s enjoy this game_

_And I am your opponent_

_Be careful of your shadow_

_For you will die when you’re consumed by it_

_This is a game_

_Arrogant fool who misses_

_On the grand ideals_

_Deluding oneself while playing with lives_

_As if you became a god_

_Who doesn’t fear anything_

_I will show you pits of hell_

_By analyzing the graph_

_This data and these numbers_

_I’ll make you understand_

_The rules of this world_

_A dangerous match is starting_

_These invisible tactics_

_Throwing in the dice of the game_

_That doesn’t have mercy_

_Shall we start?_

 

Dick was mocking the Red Hood. He was shoving the natural curiosity that all cops possessed. He seemed to be taunting his villain and yet remaining in complete control. The small satisfied smirk on his lips only added to the effect. He gave a full 90 degree bow and proceeded to practically _skip_ back this seat.

He was just so damn _gleeful._

Luckily there wasn’t too many more people left. Unfortunately for him he wouldn’t be able to leave until much later because he had to stay and help decide who was being cast. Kori was covering for him at the café so he would be fine for work. As soon as Roy had heard that Jason was planning on avoiding the audition using work as an excuse he roped Kori into forcing Jason to audition.

She was far too happy to help Roy with his schemes. If they were going to go to so much trouble to make sure that he auditioned, the least he could do was to do his best even if he was never going to get the role. If he was lucky he’d get a singing role. He was a ‘newbie’ after all. He let out a groan as everyone finally cleared out of the auditorium. Only the musical theatre club members (well those who actually cared about the musical) the director, the glee teacher, the music teacher, the drama teacher and the literacy teacher. The literacy teacher had a passion for musical scripts so the director welcomed her with open arms.

They began casting the main characters first, starting with the role of Diana. There had only been a few girls – and surprisingly 1 very masculine boy – who dared to go up against Miranda. Even after only hearing about her, Jason knew not to cross her. When that girl only hearing about her, Jason knew not to cross her. When that girl wanted something _she got it_. Well, except for the musical theatre club. TO be fair though, the only reason she didn’t get in is because of her attitude.

Despite her less than stellar attitude, she did have the best grasp of the character. It didn’t help that all of the others had chosen to audition with ‘I’m Ready’, which despite being one of Misa’s songs, didn’t really show her character. It was almost a unanimous vote to have her play Diana.

And for the role of Nightwing the vote was actually unanimous. Dick may have been the only one who auditioned for the role – which made the director pout for a subtle 5 minutes – but now but no one could deny how perfect he was for the role.

Then there was the role of the Red Hood. There had been 2 other jocks who had tried for the part, but they couldn’t sing so they almost immediately dismissed by the director. The real problem was that Arthur Gilbert had also auditioned for the part and was actually decent.

He was a good singer and his grasp of the character was pretty good. If he had been anyone else, then the club would have almost unanimously voted for him. But no, Arthur was the most popular jock in the school, so he had a lot of loyalty. Both the group of students and teachers were actually evenly split. People who wanted Arthur claimed that he really understood the character Robin. That his ability to do stunts really didn’t matter in the long run. Although it was obvious that the main reason is because he’s the popular jock everyone expected to get the role.

Jason supporters (Emily being one of the most vocal) argued that Arthur may be able to play an adequate Robin, but he just wasn’t able to pull off the Red Hood. Jason, they claimed, could do both _and_ pull off any stunt that the director required. At a questioning look from a couple of the teachers he huffed, climbed back onto the stage and proceeded to do a series of flips.

He let out a small smirk at the Arthur supporters’ shocked facial expressions. He sat back down in his seat and it was back to business. Oddly enough, this was the decision that the director was the least vocal about. He’d remained silent – much like Jason himself had – during the entire debate. He was actually staring off into space.

He leaned forward to speak and everyone immediately ceased their chatter. The director looked tickled pink, then he got this serious look on his face. (Seriously this was just some stupid high school play, it’s not like it will actually change anyone’s life) “I’ve listened to both sides of the argument and I’ve picked the candidate who I believe will be able to really bring this character to life” he said.

No matter how small a chance he had of getting the role – even if he (and others) speculated that the role was based off both him and Light – he was still nervous to hear the verdict. He honestly wanted to play the Red Hood now that he’d had the time to entertain the idea of actually playing the character. There was a small (who is he kidding? It’s a pretty big part of him) part of him that hoped that the director actually chose him. He tried not to get his hopes up because he knew that he’d be crushed no matter how much he tried to ignore that fact. He was invested now, there’s no going back.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, anxiously awaiting the deciding vote. “Jason Todd will get the role of the Red Hood and Robin. Arthur will play the role of Detective Blake” he said finally. Jason (and about half of the club) gaped openly at the director. He couldn’t believe it, he got the role! He was chosen over Arthur, the popular kid.

Sure Arthur was still playing an important enough role – Detective Black was a corrupt officer who believe in the Red Hood. He was like Ryuuk in a sense – so it would appease the majority of the people who would kick up a fuss at not keeping a tradition. (At least they legitimately didn’t have a problem with homosexuality or the play being a homosexual love story).

But it was still so surprising. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad after all.

They finished casting the rest of the characters about an hour later. Then they printed the list and posted it around the school.

 

Red Hood/Robin................................................Jason Todd

Nightwing...................................................... Dick Grayson

Diana...................................................... Miranda Beauman

Joker............................................................. Ryan Richards

Detective Blake.............................................. Arthur Gilbert

Officer Yagami.............................................. Angela Adams

Bane................................................................. Sean Davids

Mob Boss DiNozzo........................................... Emily Chang

 

And then there was a plethora of extra characters like interns, police officer, city workers, criminals, random citizens, etc. But they had more than enough people who signed up as an extra (no audition required since it was mainly chorus) and those that didn’t make the cut for the 9 main (ish) characters would get the speaking/singing extra parts.

Now some of these characters may seem a little unfamiliar, but sit tight an explanation is coming.

Office Yagami, along with Detective Blake and Diana, work closely with Nightwing and Robin in an effort to find the Red Hood. He was a mild mannered, soft spoken police officer who preferred to avoid conflict and simply do paperwork with the interns.

Diana is an employee of the GCPD who mainly does undercover reconnaissance. But she also serves the purpose of an intern. She has a major crush on Nightwing and is ecstatic when she learns she get to work with him, even though she has this weird side friends with benefits/affair with one of the frequent arrestees. She tends to be rude to everyone else on the ‘team’. She lives in lower Gotham and knows her way around.

Black Mask, Bane, and Mob Boss DiNozzo are all high profile villains that the Red Hood has a flashy fight with before killing them. They’re the component of excitement in the show, allowing them to pull of stunts. That’s why they were played by either jocks or dancers. (Emily = dancer, Sean = jock, Angela = gymnast)

Now, the Joker was a whole other can worms. He was basically the director’s baby. He’d apparently created him a couple years back when he visited Gotham for the first time. He was supposed to embody all of Gotham’s dark side. He was a complete psychopath whose kill count not only included innocents but was about twice as many as the Red Hood. He also had a massive amount of property damage – he _really_ liked bombs) to add to his rap sheet.

The only reason that he wasn’t Gotham’s most wanted was because he had been caught, _multiple times_ , and thrown into Arkham Asylum. He broke out about once a month, but since he’s a fictional character – and the death penalty was unfortunately illegal in Gotham – he was never killed. When they caught him _again_ – and they always did – they just threw him back into the mental hospital.

His connection to the story of the musical as his shared past with Robin. While the Joker’s actual past was not stated and would be left up to the imagination of the audience, his connection to Robin would be the opening scene. It was probably the darkest part of the musical, and the one the parents were most likely to object to, but the school had put on a production of the Book of Mormon the year before without a fuss – according to Emily.

Anyway, the Joker had kidnapped Robin when he was a teenager and tortured him for 3 months. No one knew what happened in those three moths, but those who even knew it happened never mentioned it around him. But he hadn’t been saved after 3 months, the police had stopped looking, believing he was just another Crime Alley run away. So the Joker was the one who had left poor Robin to die.

It was what drove Robin to become both a police officer and the Red Hood. It would be a bold statement, and it certainly added a lot of depth and new meaning to the song ‘Where is the Justice’. You could say that the joker was the one who created Robin.

He would be played by one of the school’s outcasts. The kid honestly played the psychotic mass murderer very well. Despite how important to the play the Joker is, he doesn’t have many songs or stunts. He just has the opening scene and the ending.

Overall, the casting choices were great, and Jason was grudgingly excited to work with everyone to bring this new musical to life. After he’d finished helping some of the backstage crew – honestly some of the other actors and dancers treated them like trash, but they don’t even realize just how much they do – put the casting list up around the school, he went out to the student parking.

All of the people with the flashier cars had already left and he was pretty much the only one there. There was a couple of more mainstream middle class cars which no doubt belonged to the teachers. And then there was his baby. It was an old motorcycle that he’d found broke down in Crime Alley. He’d ‘found’ some spare parts and tools and fixed it up. He’d managed to almost completely restore the old bike so now it runs like a dream.

He was proud of his motorcycle, it was his baby. He quickly hoped on and threw on his bright red motorcycle helmet – he suspects that the director saw him leaving the school one day and named his character after it. The fact that the Joker used to go by the Red Hood and Robin was doing it out of spite meant nothing – and drove off, eager to get back to the Harper residence.

He had a lot of homework to get done, and a script to fix. The director didn’t know all that much about the inner workings of a police station, let alone Gotham’s so he’d offered to help because of his second job. The director had beamed at him. It had actually been creepy.

Point is he was going to play the lead, he didn’t want the musical to be trash.

It took him about 45 minutes to get back because there wasn’t _that_ much traffic. He sighed heavily as he unlocked all of 6 of the locks on the Harper household and slung his bag over his shoulder. The house was dark so Jason pulled out a baseball bat from the coat rack as he cautiously crept through the house. He made it to the kitchen when suddenly the lights flipped on and someone (most likely Roy because of how deep the voice was) screamed “SURPRISE” from behind.

He nearly took off someone’s head before he realized there was o threat. “Guys you can’t do this!” he growled as he turned to face the three people standing in the kitchen. “You know where we live, I thought someone might have broken in. Our last squatter was only a month ago! I could have bashed your heads in.”

Roy rolled his eyes and clapped Jason on the shoulder sarcastically, taking care to remove the baseball bat from his grip. “Oh come o Jay, don’t give yourself so much credit, you wouldn’t be the able to actually bash our head in” he said jovially. Jason rolled his eyes but let Roy take the weapon.

“We’re sorry Jaybird, we just wanted to surprise you!” Kori said bringing her hands – and what she was holding – in front of her. Jason scowled at the hated nicknamed and thanked the giant flying spaghetti monster that none of the musical theatre kids had either heard of or come with that nickname yet. But then his eyes were drawn to what Kori was holding in her out stretched hands.

It was a small cake, decorated with white icing and a bright red jelly writing depicting the word ‘congratulations’. There was some brightly coloured flowers made out of buttercream piled on one corner of the small cube of cake. He felt his eyes widen and he shot a look at Ms. Harper in confusion.

The woman smiled softly at him before responding to his silent question. “We wanted to celebrate after your auditions. You’ve been working so hard lately” she told him kindly. He cautiously took a seat at the island they had in the middle of the kitchen, the others mirroring his motions.

“But you don’t even know if I got _a_ part, let alone the part I auditioned for. I told you how they had a tradition of only casting the popular rich kids!” he responded. He was honestly confused, how could they have so much confidence that he would get the role? Could they really afford this cake? They’d been saving up for school, paying bills and buying food and clothes. Money was tight despite the amount of work they all did.

“Oh, we knew you’d get the part, they’d be stupid not to cast you” Ms. Harper replied flippantly. “We just want to congratulate you, but for the record you did get the part right?” she asked. A Jason’s hesitant nod she continued “well then let’s enjoy this cake while you tell us all about the auditions.”

They talked long into the night, Jason deciding not to patrol the streets for once, sitting around the table, eating cake, and dissecting the different casting choices. It felt like family.

 

* * *

 

The next day, the entire school was buzzing with excitement at finding out who cast. There were crowds of students huddling around the small pieces of paper that told them who got the main parts and who got the limited extra parts. People had been making bets about who would get what character almost as soon as the signup sheets became public.

The eyes of the students were quickly drawn to the two leads, Red Hood/Robin and Nightwing, expecting to see Arthur Gilbert and Dick Grayson. They saw Dick Grayson, but the Red Hood’s actor shocked a lot of them. It may have been shocking, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Everyone knew about Jason’s past, and ever since Jason had made it into the musical theatre club, everyone knew how talented he was.

Someone had recorded his audition and by the end of the day, every one in the school (and even some of the other private high schools) had seen it. All of this course, happened without Jason’s Dick’s and the musical theatre club’s – well besides that one kid who started it all, Jeremy Karnac – knowledge. Lesson of the day: never a high school gossip system.

Point being that everyone knew that Jason was very capable of bringing this character to life, they just never believed he would be voted for. Sure he was good, but Gotham Academy was nothing if not traditional, and the popular kids getting the role was a big tradition. There was going to be some uproar.

Surprisingly, this uproar did not come from Arthur Gilbert himself. In fact when he’d seen the cast sheet he’d let out a sigh of relief, claiming his dad would kill him if he played a gay character. The LGBT people would have ripped him apart, but he claimed to have no problem with them, seeing as he’s pansexual. It’s just his dad was a homophobic asshole and Arthur wasn’t too keen on being on the receiving end of that. Arthur was still a stuck up idiot, but at least he wasn’t a homophobic stuck up idiot.

No, the uproar actually came from the teachers – who coincidentally hadn’t seen Jason’s audition. Some argued that traditions must be kept, others argued that it was shameful to have a street not represent them. Some even claimed there was no way that that ‘bastard child’ could actually have talent, let alone be better than someone of better blood. That certainly ruffled some feathers amongst the students and reawakened the old argument of class.

But overall, the school was excited for the play. People were making posters and internet ads. The musical theatre club would be putting on performances as long as tickets could be sold, which based off last year’s attendance could easily be 3 weeks. It was one of the only attractions Gotham had – which was really sad. SO they had a large budget and just about anyone who could buy a ticket came

This year they had a new director hailing from New York who was actually pretty well known, so that would draw in some people. Either way, it would be an exciting time. Especially considering this was the first original play the high school would be putting on. It was 3 months before the musical would be performed, which wasn’t a lot of time but they’d manage.

Despite it still being fairly far away, the students just couldn’t stop talking about it. Even the teachers were excited about it, this was shown by the fact that they worked all of their lessons round the plot of the musical. Art class? Helping create the props and costumes. Math class? Figuring out how much funding would be necessary to actually become a vigilante. Science class? Researching what different chemicals did the human body. Physics? Swinging from rooftops and how strong the cable would need to be.

Psychology? You bet your ass that they were over analyzing the characters (both from Death Note and Under the Red Hood – which was he official title of the new musical) to find out what caused them to do what they did. English of course, was reading Death Note and over analyzing absolutely _everything_ as usual for an English course. And finally, in Music they worked on finding a chorus choir to help the actors along, either that or the band was learning the instrumentals.

Meanwhile during lunches and after school, the musical theatre club was working very hard on the script. Jason in particular had a lot of input because he had a unique and an intern at the GCPD and being an actual Crime Alley resident.

He was able to give them descriptions of Crime Alley and its residents. Of course the criminals and of the things one needed to do to be safe. He talked about how the different police officers act ad how you could know when someone was corrupt. He even gave lectures on body language that were better than the ones the teachers gave. The rest of the club just listened in a combination of fascination and horror.

Most of the students had no idea what lower Gotham was like, so they – being the teachers of this fine school – had him give some speeches and had the students write essays on life in Crime Alley like it was some stupid history project. He hated now the rest of his English class looked at him as if he was a war vet (with all he’s seen, he might as well be), but maybe this generation might be more compelled to try and help.

Anyway, there was only so much one could do concerning the script without running through the songs. They’d already decided that ‘I’ll Only Love You More’, ‘Where is the Justice’, ‘The Game Begins’, and ‘Playing his Game’ didn’t need any work because the lyrics fit. ‘Hurricane’ only needed a few words changed (‘with this hand held gun’ instead o ‘with this pen and pad’, ‘get rid of the murder weapon’ instead of ‘burn this sinister notebook’ and ‘this time I have’ instead of ‘this notebook has’), but there were other songs that they needed to reword.

Instead of just re-working the lyrics, the director decided to have them sing the songs to get a feel for the music and what words are really necessary to make the song have feeling. They’d already done ‘The Name is Kira’ now all they had to do was ‘Stalemate’. It was a duet between Light (The Red Hood/Robin) and L (Nightwing) with a small solo from Misa (Diana). So the three of them (Dick, Jason and Miranda) stood up and headed towards the auditorium’s stage.

They got into position (technically it was a rehearsal so they should get into the role and actually act) ad Dick began to sing as the track began to play.

 

_Each time I challenge he responds_

_Takes the bait as if he’s taunting me_

_Waves a hundred magic wands_

_And soon a hundred men just cease to be_

_I haven’t figured out just how_

_He doesn’t kill them with a knife or gun_

_But if you asked me here and now_

_I’m pretty sure that Kira is your son_

 

His voice was smooth as he began to pace around one side of the stage, lit up by a spotlight that someone had gone to wok. There was a quick musical break as Jason stepped forward and the spotlight warmed up.

 

_I wonder is this guy for real_

_I wonder is he who he claims to be_

_And if he is then what’s the deal_

_Why would he make a point of telling me?_

 

His voice was strong and calculating. He didn’t move around the stage as much as Dick did with his charismatic portrayal of Nightwing. Dick cut in almost as soon as Jason finished.

 

_He doesn’t rattle easily_

_He’s such a calm and cool collected guy_

_And if he kills while he’s with me_

_Like it or not I have his alibi_

 

Dick’s voice held an edge of frustration as he sang the last two lines. Then the two of them joined together, singing in unison and harmonizing.

 

_All or nothing so_

_Let’s get to it_

_This time’s[stalemate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiehpblOTh0)  
_

_But just you wait_

_Clock is ticking so_

_Let’s just do it_

_Let’s begin_

_Thick or thin_

_Lose or win_

_This is it_

 

Their voices blended together surprisingly well considering this was the first time they’d sung this song and sung together. The harmonies came naturally and over all, the chorus really showed the emotions each character was feeling. Jason took a couple steps and begun to move towards the other side of the stage – Dick mirroring his movements – as he began to sing the next verse.

 

_His name is obviously fake_

_He inoculates himself from me_

_He’s waiting for my first mistake_

_So I’ll wait also but more patiently_

_Dick cu in, smirking at the irony in his next few lines._

_Just like two actors on a stage_

_Go through the motions that we both rehearsed_

_Our little new atomic age_

_Eyeball to eyeball we’ll see who blinks first_

 

Then they sang together again, switching who sang the harmony.

 

_All or nothing so_

_Let’s get to it_

_This time’s stalemate_

_But just you wait_

_Clock is ticking so_

_Let’s just do it_

_No taboos_

_Light the fuse_

_Win or lose_

_This is it_

 

There was another instrumental break where both Jason and Dick retreated to the back of the stage, their spot light’s dimming as they moved into the background. Then Miranda was taking long strides up the center of the stage as a third spotlight shown on her. You could tell just how much it sustained her by the way that she seemed to just glow on stage.

 

_I know you’re gonna love my brand new song_

_It’s full of tiny little hidden clues_

_So we can find each other in a crowd_

_And when we do you know I’m yours to use_

_I feel like we were born for just one thing_

_I know we’re gonna be a perfect fit_

_You can be my heart and I can be your eyes_

_It’s me and you forever_

_This is it_

 

Her voice rang through the auditorium as she held the last note through the beginning of the final chorus.

 

_All or nothing so_

_Let’s get to it_

_This time’s stalemate_

_But just you wait_

_Clock is ticking so_

_Let’s just do it_

 

Jason and Dick began to trade lines, starting with Dick.

 

 _Let’s begin_ Dick sang

 _Light the fuse_ Jason countered

 _Go all in_ Dick continued

 _Win or lose_ Jason answered

 _Lose or win_ Dick ground out, allowing a bit of grit to enter his voice

 _This it it!_ They finished together

 

As soon as Miranda had finished holding that one long note she had turned around and retreated, allowing Jason and Dick to use the entire stage. They took advantage of this and by the end of the song they were face to face and breathing heavily. They kept eye contact for a long moment, either one wanting it to end. But then Miranda coughed delicately and Jason’s eyes darted away awkwardly.

Dick took a step back, blushing lightly and pointedly ignoring Emily who was making kissy faces from the audience. The director cleared his throat before calling the 3 back to the seats around the desk table he had moved into an aisle so that they could work.

“I really liked how you both put a lot of emotion in to the song, especially near the end – we’re definitely keeping that end move. Even if you’ll technically be on different sets since this is a duet between Nightwing and the Red Hood, not Nightwing and Robin.” He said thoughtfully before turning to face Miranda and addressing her.

“Miranda, your vocals were amazing… but you might want to tone down your acting. We’re probably going to try and incorporate Misa’s solo ‘I’m Read’ and admittedly that’s a pretty dramatic song; but unlike Misa Amane, Diana isn’t all that desperate.” Miranda’s lips thinned in displeasure at being given criticism, even if it was constructive, but she nodded anyway.

“Now, there’s an awful lot of lyrics that need to be changed, but I think that Diana’s part doesn’t need to be changed, this will happen before she meets Nightwing and is still undercover and she’s hoping she’ll meet him sooner before she comes into the station. But a lot of the other parts of the song don’t work with the Red Hood’s signature.” The director continued. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

Everyone shifted awkwardly, not wanting to be the one to speak up. “Well Nightwing’s opening is okay, the whole _‘waves a hundred magic wands, and soon a hundred men just cease to be’_ seems to be okay because there’s no video footage or evidence ever. It’s just like they go missing for a split second, then there’s a bullet in their head shot from point blank range. The only thing in common at the scenes is that 30 minutes before, a stranger walks by, his face obscured by a red hood.” One of the artists who was helping design the background said.

A boy who was fiddling with a piece of a costume shook his head, “but what about the part after? _‘I haven’t figured out just how, he doesn’t kill them with a knife or gun. But if you asked me here and now, I’m pretty sure that Kira is your son’_ those lines don’t fit.” He argued.

The guy next to him spoke up. “What if we changed it to _‘I haven’t figured out just how, there’s no evidence left behind. But if you asked me here and now, I’m pretty sure the Red Hood is among us’_. It’s a bit awkward near the end but it works” he suggested. The director beamed at him.

“Yes I like that!” he exclaimed as he made the changes on the sheet music. That was all people needed to begin throwing out ideas and coming up with lines that needed to be changed.

“What about the whole _‘make a point of telling me?’_ we can just change _‘me’_ to _‘us’_?”

“Yeah! Then we can change _‘he doesn’t rattle easily, he’s such a calm and cool collected guy. And if he kills while he’s with me, like it or not I have his alibi’_ to _‘they don’t rattle easily, they’re such calm and cool collected guys. If one kills while they’re with me, like it or not I have his their alibi’_ ”

“I think that fits pretty well. The chorus doesn’t seem to need any changes, so we can skip that.”

“I concur, good sir”

“Shut up Dick”

There was a round of laughter at the last two remarks. And despite his original misgivings, Jason was really glad he joined. Then it was right back to business and they were back to brainstorming.

“We could explain away the next verse by having Nightwing introduce himself with Nightwing _and_ something stupid like John Smith because he doesn’t want to reveal his identity.”

“I really like the irony in the verse after that” Dick said, adding in his own 2 cents to the brainstorm. “So that would be the rest of the song. No more changes necessary!” he cried happily. Jason looked up from where he was modifying sheet music and making notes on different things that have to be added to the musical.

They’d finished modifying that song, so that was all they were needing to accomplish ad the meeting was almost over. “I’ll start writing an English version that works for ‘I’m Ready’ like I did for ‘Hurricane’ but I need to get to work before I’m late” he said as he gathered his things.

There was some calls of “bye” and “see you tomorrow” and then the door closed behind him and he was left to the silence of school after hours (it was always dark and gloomy in Gotham) and his thoughts. He leaned against the wall outside of the auditorium and allowed himself to blush in embarrassment. He really didn’t think he’d been staring all that lone at Dick – he really didn’t know him all that well, kids like Grayson didn’t associate with people like him – but Miranda’s cough alerted him to how awkward they were.

He knew that he should have looked away, but it was something completely different to actually stare right back at Dick. His eyes were a bright blue like the sky and they were very intense. It was like he could look right at Jason and see directly into his soul. They were so beautiful, he couldn’t help but stare, hating his own dull mixed blue green eyes.

But he stared a little too long and he was secretly very embarrassed about having to be interrupted. He’d managed to keep himself from blushing during the rest of the meeting, but now that he was aloe he allowed himself to turn tomato red. After a moment of calming down, he began to walk towards his motorcycle. He wasn’t lying when he said he had to work.

Even though it was only 5:30 pm it was already dark out, and by the time he arrived at the small café that he worked at (Outlaws) the street lights that still worked in the area had turned on. He quickly parked his motorcycle in front of the building, ran inside towards the staff washroom, pulling off his helmet as he went and sending a quick “I’ll be out in a minute” over his shoulder as he ran through the kitchen.

A couple of minutes later he left the bathroom out of his uniform in a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He had carefully folded his uniform and placed it one top of his books in his back pack. He placed both in the corner of the kitchen and tied on a bright green apron with his name tag on it as he walked towards another cash register and opened it. Almost immediately the line at Kori’s register and opened it. Almost immediately the line at Kori’s register cut in half and he was swept into service. When another employee came and took over the register he immediately began bringing things to different tables and taking orders.

They were the kind of café that people could order to-go up front or you could sit down and have a waiter take your order. It was a pretty popular café and right now was rush hour. Jason had another hour before he could retreat to the kitchens with Kori.

 

* * *

 

After the rush of customers finally ebbed to a few stragglers near the end of the day, Kori and Jason retreated to the kitchen to begin baking for the next day. The other workers could finish with the customers and then it will be up to them to lock up after the café closed.

It was quiet and the only source of light was the kitchen. This was the time that the two friends used to catch up with each other. Roy got to see Jason every night and weekend, but Kori was a college student, so her work regime was just as busy as his. This shift was the only one they had together where they actually got to talk, considering Jason always took the post-desk job rush.

So while they began to wipe down tables and organize equipment in preparation for the actual baking, Kori struck up a conversation. “Cut it a little close today” she teased playfully as she refilled napkin containers. “Was there a _reason_ for that?” she continued. Jason rolled his eyes, both Kori and Roy had recently become really obsessed with his love life and they were constantly making jokes about it.

“I was at rehearsal, you knew that! We were just running through songs and fixing lyrics where they didn’t fit. I still have to write an English version for a song and make the lyrics fit” he complained, trying in vain to hide his blush behind annoyance. As soon as he thought about the rehearsal all he could think about was Dick’s eyes, and having his lips only centimeters away from his own.

Despite his efforts, Kori immediately picked on his discomfort and proceeded to latch onto it. “Ohhh! So something _did_ happen. Alright kid, spill” she demanded. Jason groaned, there was no way she was going to drop it so he might as well just answer her now a save time. But he could still try and skirt around the… incident.

“It was nothing. Dick Grayson was just being weird and staring again. We had a long moment of awkward eye contact, he has a very intense stare” he said, trying to add an air of nonchalance into his speech and failing miserably. Kori snickered at him.

“And what does this Dick Grayson look like?” she asked slyly. Jason began rolling out dough to make some pastries while he thought about how to answer that question, completely oblivious to the devious smirk on Kori’s lips.

“Well he has ink black hair and I guess you could say that he’s handsome. The girls in the school certainly seem to think so. He’s a couple centimeters shorter than me, and he’s an acrobat so he’s decently muscular. And his eyes are a bright sky blue that really stand out with his tan skin tone” he explained.

“You _like_ him” Kori said mockingly and Jason couldn’t help but flush bright red. Internally he cursed his pale skin for making it so obvious that he was blushing. Why couldn’t Gotham have more sun?

“I do not!” he argued, turning to face her. She grinned like the cat that caught the canary at hi exclamation. “He’s just some popular rich brat that plays the other male lead that’s a gay love story with really pretty eyes… so what?” he asked angrily. Kori’s smug smile wasn’t doing anything to help at all.

“Okay, so maybe I think he’s really attractive and maybe I really want to kiss his heart shaped lips but that doesn’t mean anything” he argued, digging an even bigger hole for himself. Kori’s unimpressed look told him otherwise. “Fine! I like him ok!” he caved finally. Kori simply beamed at him. “But that doesn’t mean he like me back! So I don’t really see a point” he grumbled.

Kori smiled gently and walked over to him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “If what I’ve heard from Roy about how you feel that he’s always watching you is true, then I’m sure he’s at least interested.” She said reassuringly.

“Yeah sure” he scoffed. “Like he’d actually be interested in some street rat. With who his adoptive father is, he could rule the world.”


	3. Chapter 3

Rehearsals after that went pretty well for the most part. Jason managed to configure the song _‘[I’m Ready](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p79qYr1S_4w)’_ into the play and even finished the script. He added a few other songs to fill out the score. Another solo for Nightwing which would be a version of _‘When Love Comes’_ originally sung by Rem, and  a solo (maybe duet?) for the Red Hood (and possibly the Joker) which would be a version of _‘They’re Only Human’_ originally sung by Rem and Ryuuk.

He still had to think about changes to the lyrics, but it would be a good duet for the Joker and the Red Hood to sing while they look at normal people and the Red Hood is trying to track down the Joker. Perhaps he could place it before the big confrontation between all 3 of them (Joker, the Red Hood and Nightwing & co.) at the very end. It could be where Robin is preparing for his grand finale, and the Joker for his next heist.

The Joker’s character is known to be disgusted with humanity. He makes many odd comments distancing himself from humanity and yet he makes other comments where he claims that they’re all human. He makes those comments during his captivity… wait! Maybe he doesn’t have to change the ending at all! He can simply… yet that will work nicely. He quickly penciled in the scene and inserted the sheet music. Yes, that ending was much more dramatic and satisfying.

He grinned to himself as he headed off to class, thoroughly terrifying the students in the hallway. He _never_ smiled during the school day.

 

* * *

 

After Jason’s epiphany concerning his feelings he began to stare at Dick a lot more. He even asked Emily, Sylph and Jeremy about him. They proceeded to giggle every time he asked, but you know, he tried to brush it off. Girls. During rehearsal he even responded and kept a conversation with him when Dick talked to him.

He found himself actually seeking out Dick’s company and over the course of the rehearsals. They actually became good friends, bonding over a mutual love for stunts (gymnastics/trapeze/tumbling) and the fact that they both had the leads in the musical. They worked surprisingly well and this pleased the director greatly. So they got along and spent time together (which Jason is ashamed to say that it made his heart soar to spend time with Dick) which helped their stage chemistry a lot.

Dick learned things about Jason that only Roy and Kori had known previously. He even learned some things about Jason that no one knew. In return, dick shared with him stories of the circus. He normally didn’t like talking about his past, but he found it was easy with Jason.

Time moved on and the musical began to really come together. The metal shop cases had finished the set parts and backdrops that the visual arts students were working on was also done. The costumes had all been finished the week before and everyone had their lines and songs memorized. Only a couple dance numbers and stunts needed to be refined. Other than that they were ready for the first showing in 2 weeks.

 

* * *

 

About a week before opening nights, Dick brought up the musical at the dinner table. So far the musical had been pretty top secret, with no information being sent home and very little information leaked to the student body. So Dick wouldn’t be surprised if Bruce had no idea he was even in the musical in the first place. “So, the school musical is going to open next week” he started awkwardly.

Time jumped at the chance to escape the awkward silence. “Oh yeah! I’ve been so curious because there’s very little information out there. Only the title and a couple posters!” Tim said frustrated. Dick blushed as he remembered when they’d made those posters. The photography club had gotten together and taken a picture of himself and Jason in costume (police uniform and Red Hood gear). They’d done a couple others, some that were more embarrassing, but they’d decided on 2 that didn’t really reveal much.

One was a silhouette of the Joker holding a crowbar and cackling, the other was the iconic red helmet and two hand guns, almost like a skill and crossbones. It revealed very little about the actual musical. The other posters would be released after opening night when people knew about the characters. “Yea, so… I’m the lead in the play and I was wondering if you guys would be able to make it to opening night?” he asked sheepishly.

Tim’s eyes bugged out of his head. “You knew and you didn’t tell me anything?” he said in disbelief. Dick blushed even more. Bruce rolled his eyes at his sons’ antics.

“Of course we’ll be there, Dick” he said. “We’d been planning one going anyway, we _do_ go every year.” He said, reminding Dick. Despite his tan skin, he was as red as a tomato right now. After another awkward silence Bruce spoke again, “So you’re laying the lead?” he asked and Dick lit up.

“Yes, I get to play a detective and the director was great with stunts! I even get to use a trapeze because the other lead is also good with physical stunts!” he gushed. “Jason Todd plays the other lead and he’s a very accomplished gymnast – even while singing!”

Stephanie put down her fork as she turned to face Dick. “Wait, you mean that street rat that you have a crush on?” she asked.

“Don’t call him a street rat!” he said immediately. It was a knee jerk response and he didn’t even think about. Then he realized what Stephanie had implied with the rest of her question and he quickly amended his statement. “And I don’t have a crush on him!” he denied. Stephanie sneers at him, but surprisingly it was Damian who answered first.

“Don’t bother denying it, Grayson. Your initial reaction is more than enough proof… and you’ve been mooning over that boy since you first saw him” he said dismissively, not even bothering to interrupt his meal with ‘trivial matters with obvious conclusions’. Dick opened his mouth to respond when he got cut off by Tim who was going to provide another equally snide remark.

“You knew when you first came out I really didn’t believe you. The way you flirted with all of those girls you had to be straight! But honestly the way you’ve been infatuated with this guy t _otally_ changed my mind. You’re definitely as gay as a 3 dollar bill” he said mockingly. Dick glared at him, he did _not_ flirt with girls. He also didn’t know whether he should be offended about not looking gay or not.

He also resented the implication that he was a middle school girl with a crush.

He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed in disdain. “I resent that” he settled on saying instead. Tim stuck his tongue out at him and Damian rolled his eyes while somehow looking as stuck up and posh as always.

“Shut up and eat your food Grayson. We’ll be there to see you make a fool out of yourself while trying to impress Todd.” He said. Dick grumbled but he did finish the rest of his dinner in silence.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Jason was having a very similar conversation with his own adoptive ‘family’ because Kori was also having dinner with the Harper family. She _had_ lived with them for a couple of months during her first year of university. “Hey, so opening night is in a week” he started awkwardly, and since I’m a scholarship student that makes their school look good with my excellent test scores  and the principal’s scared shitless of me – I have a bit of leeway. They’ll give me 3 tickets for opening night and closing night. It helps that I am one of the leads and it’s too late to recast.”

They turned towards him almost in sync. He shifted uncomfortably under their scrutiny. “That’s fantastic Jason! We’ll all be there for both nights!” Ms. Harper said happily. Surprisingly out of the 3 of them, she’d been the happiest about him being in the play.

“Yeah jaybird! We’ll be there to watch you make googly eyes at your crush on stage.” Roy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and continuing to eat. Kori smacked him over the top of his head, but she didn’t disagree. It was just a little blunt. Jason simply glared at both Roy and Kori. Roy because he was the idiot that made Ms. Harper aware that he had a crush on the other lead (AKA Dick Grayson) and Kori because she did nothing to dissuade that idea.

That might not seem like it’s too bad – it’s just your friends/family mocking you for having a crush. But that’s where you’re wrong. This wasn’t any old ordinary case. Because it could go one of two ways. Ms. Harper had no idea that Jason was into guys. She knew b now that the other lead was none other than Dick Grayson, so praying that she might have thought the other lead was female was pointless.

Then again, she could be completely cool with the fact that he’s gay and not kick him out. But he didn’t know how good that actually would be considering what happened to Roy’s last crush. Kori had made the mistake of saying her full name in front of Ms. Harper. By the next _day_ the poor girl had been completely traumatized and avoided them like the plague.

After that they made sure to never say anything about romantic interests, be it male or female, in front of her.

Roy paled as he realized what he’d done. He shot a nervous look at Kori who simply shrugged as if to say ‘she’d find out next week anyway’. Jason’s glare intensified. He shifted his gaze towards Ms. Harper, dropping his glare.

He didn’t want to make the inevitable worse by glaring at her.

“Oh? Jason why didn’t you tell me you had gotten a boyfriend?” she pouted, eyes glinting with an unknown emotion. He gulped and leaned back in his chair, suddenly uneasy.

“He’s not my boyfriend Ms. Harper. He’s just a one sided interest” he tried to explain. Kori scoffing in the background not helping his case at all. “Please don’t go talking to him or any of his family. He doesn’t know that I like him,” he pleaded.

“Oh,” Ms. Harper said, disappointed. “Well I don’t see why he wouldn’t return your feelings! You’re a very charming young man” she argued much to Jason’s embarrassment. Kori giggled softly, trying to muffle her laughter with her hand. Roy had no such restraint and promptly burst out into a loud guffaw.

As Ms. Harper hit Roy over the head and began lecturing him on manners much to Kori’s amusement, Jason couldn’t help but be grateful for his family.

Family doesn’t end in blood after all.

 

* * *

 

It was opening night, 1 hour before the show. Everyone was rushing round frantically trying to get ready. People were making sure the sets were all secure and everything was where it was supposed to be. They had started costumes, hair and makeup.

Both Jason and Dick were relatively easy for hair and makeup. Dick didn’t slick his hair, instead letting it fall naturally, and Jason’s hair was naturally windswept. Plus he’d end up having helmet hair for a lot of the play anyway. There was very few scenes where he wasn’t present.

As for makeup so they wouldn’t sweat it off. It was just there to hide imperfections. They both wore domino masks that were black and generic. In fact, everyone except for the Joker wore the domino masks. It would have been weird if the only 3 characters with masks were Nightwing, Robin and the Red Hood. Nightwing would have to be pretty stupid to not guess Robin was the Red Hood.

In Gotham, everyone is a threat and your identity is your closest guarded secret. Whether you want to give someone your name or not is respected no matter what class.

Costumes on the other hand, were a different story. Dick’s costume was a police uniform with certain modifications to allow him to do his gymnastic and trapeze routines. The uniform fit him perfectly while still giving him free movement. His weapons couldn’t get in the way. His costume had taken weeks to create and fit it.

Jason’s costumes believe it or not took even longer. He had to be able to quickly switch between 3 characters. There was his opening scene where he’s a young teenager being beaten within an inch of his life. He gets to wear some old raggedy ‘bloodstained’ clothes to demonstrate what Robin went through.

Then he had to be able to switch between a police detective – with a similar uniform to Dick – and the Red Hood outfit that he needs to be able to move freely in. He, along with the costume committee, had puzzled over how they would be able to do this. Finally they’d settled on a skin tight spandex top that they somehow manipulated to look like Kevlar, black cargo pants and black steel toed combat boots.

Throwing on a loose brown leather jacket and a lightweight red helmet. He completed the look while maintain full mobility and vision. To become Robin, he just threw on the top of a police uniform and ditched the jacket. It was baggier and restricting and he couldn’t move as well but Robin has no stunts, only a couple dance moves that require flexibility and those are all lower half.

Everyone else was pretty easy costume and makeup wise. There was of course exceptions. The Joker for example, took forever to make sure his makeup lasted from scene 1 to the final scenes. Jason actually helped with that. Seeing as he was good with hair and makeup – he used to help the prostitutes in exchange for food, then he helped Kori when the Harpers took him in – as soon as he was done he was running around helping.

They were ready with 5 minutes to spare. Jason peeked from behind the curtains and gulped. There was _a lot_ of people. He quickly ducked back behind the curtain. He may love performing and the rush it gave him, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t get nervous before something as big as this.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he jumped, nearly punching the person before he remembered where he was. “God Dick, you can’t do that! I’m wound up enough as it is” he said, theatrically placing a hand over his heart, automatically covering up his emotions with snark.

Dick rolled his eyes, “you have no reason to be. You’re going to be great!” he assured. Although Jason wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince exactly. He deadpanned but then the director called for places. It was time to start the show.

 

* * *

 

“What hurts more? A? Or B? Forehand or backhand?” the Joker cackled as he raised the prop crow bar and ‘hit’ Jason in the jaw. He flung himself backwards behind a screen. He fixed the microphone taped to the side of his face before a back light turned on to show his silhouette.

Ryan Richards grinned sinisterly before following Jason behind the screen and miming continuing to beat him up while Jason faked grunts and moans of pain. “Well that’s rude! Answer when someone asks you a question” the Joker scolded as he beat the living daylights out of Robin.

After a time he left with a parting message. “Remember to do your homework! Oh and say ‘hi’ to the police for me” he cackled cheerfully as he left the stage by himself, walking through the audience and leaving the auditorium. The door slamming shut behind him with a loud bang.

Jason lay in a heap on stage as some people from backstage pulled a rope attached to the screen to reveal Jason. Once the screen was gone, Arthur Gilbert dressed as Officer Blake, along with a couple extras, entered the scene. Arthur knelt down next to him, his concerned look was so good that if Jason didn’t know better he’d believe it was genuine.

He checked his pulse and turned to an extra. “He’s still breathing, we need to get him to a hospital ASAP” he said seriously. “Call ahead to Gotham central” he instructed before bending down and carefully picking Jason’s limp form up bridle style. Then they all walked offstage to prepare for the next scene.

A police officer walked across the stage holding a sign that indicates a passage of time. Then Arthur walks back onto the stage for the first song. Back up dancers dressed like cops (crooked cops) trickle in and take their positions.

 

_Where I come from_

_Is a land of bone and dust_

_No need to change_

_Or readjust_

_Where the plight of human beings_

_Is ignored_

_And all I am_

_Is always bored_

 

His voice was rough and gritty as he sang the first lines. As he continued to sing, the lights began to come on revealing a pretty accurate representation of lower Gotham. The dancers moved along and performed their choreography while others appeared to be citizens of lower Gotham.

 

_So from time to time I visit_

_Seeking fun and self defense_

_It’s no big deal_

_Really is it?_

_And of no consequence_

 

He stalked forward, performing his own choreography and miming a sword fight on the second line. He was very theatric as he moved around the stage introducing the idea of crooked cops and a failed justice system.

 

_Except for the[Red Hood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJkStbBypkQ)  
_

_Red Hood_

_His brand new name_

_The masses cheering Red Hood_

_Don’t know who the Red Hood is_

_Playing his dangerous game_

_The police sit and gamble_

_All day long_

_It isn’t right_

_But is it wrong?_

_For there really isn’t much to do_

_So now and then_

_We spy on you_

_Humans are such funny creatures_

_Always thinking we’re so smart_

_So we look down_

_From our bleachers_

_While you tear things apart_

 

Some people in the audience looked uncomfortable while others looked incredibly interested in the second scene. The ones who were uncomfortable were very obviously upper class Gothamites. They didn’t seem to like this dark take on their city. They didn’t seem to like the idea that Gotham’s police could be corrupt even though it was true.

But that was the point of Jason writing part of the musical. He knew what it was like to live in lower Gotham and this was his reality. The stuck up Gothamites could go suck a dick because this was a reality. Unlike the upper class, the people who didn’t look uncomfortable seemed to be really enjoying the first number. It was the dark version of their reality and corruption was a surprisingly popular subject nowadays.

 

_Except for the Red Hood_

_Red Hood_

_His brand new name_

_The masses cheering Red Hood_

_Don’t know who the Red Hood is_

_Playing his dangerous game_

_The more things change they say_

_The more they stay the same_

_You think you’re making changes_

_But the only thing you can change_

_Is your name_

 

In hindsight this was a pretty controversial musical with a lot of dark subject matter. The opening scene was a 15 year old boy being beaten with a crowbar and the first song was about crooked cops who don’t do their jobs and take pleasure in the horrors.

But this was Gotham and there were far too many happy go lucky musicals anyway.

 

_Because it’s the Red Hood_

_Red Hood_

_Whose justice is rigged_

_Because it’s the Red hood_

_Red Hood_

_Who makes a list of people_

_Whose name’s he’ll write down and –_

_Oh look there’s an apple_

_Mind if I take a bite?_

 

He cackled sinisterly as he ripped an apple from an extra who was dressed as a street kid. Then he took a bite out of it just to appear like even more of an asshole. Jason let out a breath as the audience cheered loudly. So far so good.

 

* * *

 

Now it was the time for the first duet between the newly infamous Red Hood and the world famous ‘greatest detective in the world’ Nightwing. He had just arrived at the Police department and he was looking over the case before he met the team he would be working with.

Meanwhile Robin was at his apartment, contemplating what Nightwing’s presence would do to his plans.

 

_Time to rethink_

_And begin_

_With a brand new game plan_

_Margin for error is slim_

 

He starts, standing on a makeshift balcony. His voice wavered a bit on the first note, but he recovered and I was barely noticeable. He could feel the warmth of the spot light that illuminated him.

 

_He’s on the brink_

_He could win_

_I can’t use the same plan_

_Time to start thinking like him_

 

Dick jumped in, a spot light illuminating where he stood at the front of the stage. He was calculating and cold a complete 180 to how he was acting before in front of the other police. Which showed that his happy go lucky puppy attitude was just a mask he used to fool people.

 

 _What would I do if I got inside his head?_ Jason sang

 _Thought like him instead_ Dick replied

 _Could it be_ Jason countered

 _Possibly_ Dick answered

 _I’ll catch him when_ they sang together

_I look through his eyes_

_See what he sees_

_And then improvise_

_Until I can learn_

_What puts him at ease_

_I’ll walk in his shoes_

_As long as it takes_

_‘Till deep in my bones_

_I’m sure he is_

_One and the same as the me_

_Who is[playing his game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDowtcyVHCI%20)  
_

 

They moved around their respective stages, following a set choreography, although most of it was standing still and looking intense. It was the job of the criminal back up dancers to add movement to the scene. During the music break, Jason climbed down the makeshift balcony structure and proceeded to fake fight with some of the dancer, pulling out two hand guns as he went.

 

_What does he do_

_Late at night_

_When the world is sleeping?_

_Does he see pixels not dreams?_

 

He questioned as he continued to dance around appointments, seemingly trying to make his way towards Dick. But Dick simply moved away to his own corner of the stage, making his way to the fire escape connecting to the balcony and wall of the set.

 

_Hard to be true_

_Always right_

_All that promise keeping_

_Harder I’m sure than it seems_

_How would it be_

_If I saw the world like him?_ Jason asked as he ‘killed another few criminals

 _Like a synonym_ Dick agreed

 _Bit by bit_ Jason sang

 _Wit by wit_ and Dick countered

 _Catch him I win_ they sung ‘coming to the conclusion’ together.

_I’ll mimic his will_

_And learn his routine_

_And feel the same thrill_

_Whenever my end is served by his means_

_I’ll walk in his shoes_

_As long as it takes_

_‘Till deep in my bone_

_I am sure he is_

_One and the same as the me_

_Who is playing his game_

 

Then Dick finally reached the top of the fire escape and he froze, turning to face the audience as he crouched down slightly, arms in front of him.

 

_Steady_

_I must be ever so careful_

_Don’t move until you are ready_

_He will be careful too_

 

The spotlight fell on Jason where he was surrounded by fallen dancers

 

_Know it_

_Always stay cool and collected_

_Don’t lose your cool_

_On you’ll blow it_

_Then he will unravel you_

 

Then they both moved towards the center of their respective stages and got really intense with their arm/hand movements.

 

_Get into his head_

_And under his skin_

_The things that he said_

_The food that he likes_

_The places he’s been_

_I’ll look through his eyes_

_And see what he sees_

_‘Till I see the forest_

_Not just the trees_

_I’ll mimic his will_

_And learn his routines_

_I’ll feel the same thrill_

_And know what it means_

_I’ll walk in his shoes_

_As long as it takes_

_‘Till deep in my bones_

_I’m sure I am winning my game_

_While I’m saying_

_I’m playing his games_

 

The lights went out as soon as they finished the last note and then everyone was running frantically to finish getting ready for the next scene: Red Hood taking down Bane. It was one of the biggest fight scenes so they had a lot to do in a small amount of time.

 

* * *

 

The rest of act 1 went off without a hitch and they were now halfway through the second act. It was time for Dick’s big solo ballad. Everyone cleared off stage. The song was only going to be Dick without any back up dancers, allowing all hands on deck backstage.

 

_People always talk about it_

_I have always lived without it_

_Never understood its magic spell_

_It can take your breath away or_

_So that’s what the poets say_

_Guess they oughtta know_

_But who can tell_

I never believed that anything

Could feel this true

Don’t see it coming ‘till it’s

_Standing right in front of you_

 

This ballad was the turning point for Nightwing. He just realized that he was in love with Robin and was coming to terms with it. He now has to face the fact that he fell in love with a subordinate and that his first priority must be catching the Red Hood.

 

_[When love comes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSJUoBI8C0) _

_It takes you by surprise_

_You see things_

_Through someone else’s eyes_

_When love comes_

_You’ll never be the same_

_It scares you_

_Still you hope it stays forever_

_When love comes_

 

There’s also the fact that Robin most likely doesn’t return his feelings. So his love is one-sided.

 

_Finally there’s someone to cry for_

_Someone I will gladly die for_

_Someone who is all the way alive_

_Can’t believe the peace I’m feeling_

_Almost like it can’t be real_

_Even if I die_

_Love will survive_

 

Nightwing was a very lonely man. He spent most of his time in solitude, especially after his entire family died. Now he had someone to latch onto, to provide hope. Because no matter how cynical and pessimistic Robin was, there was still perseverance. He seemed to be determined to survive. To someone like Nightwing who was just going through the motions that was amazing.

 

_When love comes_

_It catches you off guard_

_So easy_

_Don’t notice it’s alive_

_When love comes_

_It happens way too fast_

_You hope you make the moment last forever_

_When love comes_

_You’re the only part of me_

_I’m certain will live on_

_All I ask of you is to_

_Remember love is never gone_

 

With their jobs they didn’t know when they’d die. Especially going up against such a vindictive criminal such as the Red Hood. Nightwing was both scared and content with the fact that he was probably going to die before this investigation. The Red Hood had escalated to killing off police who got too close. It was no longer just criminals. He just wants Robin to believe in love again.

 

_When love comes_

_Don’t let it slip away_

_Just hold it_

_And treasure everyday_

_When love comes_

_It struggles to belong_

_Don’t fear it_

_Share a kiss and then surrender when love comes…_

_When love comes_

 

* * *

 

The Joker had been captured by the GCPD. He’d escaped and blown up a building or two, making him the GCPD’s priority since there was no new leads with the Red Hood. Nightwing and his team helped catch him. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a way to transport him to Arkham Asylum yet, so he was currently staying in a holding cell at the station.

Meanwhile the rest of Gotham had decided no was a time for complete pandemonium. The GCPD was short on staff so Nightwing’s team were the only ones watching the Joker. But then Nightwing received a plea for back up. “Robin! Stay behind and watch the Joker!” Nightwing called as they all raced off stage.

Nightwing hated to leave anyone alone, but especially Robin – he claimed he returned Nightwing’s feelings – and it didn’t help that the Joker was very dangerous. But he had confidence in Robin’s abilities (and he couldn’t spare anyone else). The only problem was, Nightwing still had no idea about Robin’s history with the Joker.

“Hello there, little red riding hood” a lilting raspy voice called from across the room. Jason whipped around to stare at the teen in the ‘cage’. At first he thought he heard it wrong, but as he cautiously stepped closer to the ‘cage’ he saw Ryan’s face he knew. The Joker was grinning widely at him. “Come closer little Robin” he taunted, “I remember you” he singsonged.

“Poor little birdy who got his wings clipped. I’ve been missing you! But daddy’s so _proud_ of his little bird. All grown up, killing people and causing chaos as the Red Hood! He even named himself after me!” the Joker crowed. At first Jason had been opposed to the mix of Salad Fingers and evil cackling, but now at opening night, he was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Then the TV flickered on showing news coverage on the chaos that lower Gotham had descended into.

 

_Look at how they crawl around_

_Upon the ground_

_Like little ants_

 

The Joker began to sing as the two of them watched as the police frantically tried to control the rioting.

 

_Yes, but how they fascinate_

_Confusing fate_

_With what is really chance_

 

The TV – a screen behind them showing live footage of the lower stage where the background dancers fighting each other – turned off as the Joker and Robin began to trade lines.

 

_Isn’t it a laugh_

_Isn’t it a shame_

_Thinking there is someone_ Jason countered

_In heaven to blame_

_Yes’, but even while blaming_ the Joker sneered

_Fate for the lives that they lead_

_They hope for the lives that they need_ Jason insisted

_Living everyday_

_‘Till the day they die_

_Never getting answers_ the Joker cackled

_Yet still asking why_

_Going through the motions_

_As if there will be a reward_ Robin sang bitterly

 _While we stay eternally bored_ the Joker growled

_[They’re only human](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g1AMgLO7bQ&t=14s%20) _

_They don’t see_

_Who they are is who they’ll always be_

_Only human after all_ they sang together

 _So they push and they shove_ the Joker began

 _With this thing they call love_ Robin continued

_‘Till they fall_

 

They sang the last line in unison, looking down as the police began to dance, surrounded by the fallen criminals.

 

 _Isn’t it a farce?_ The Joker asked

 _Isn’t it a waste?_ Jason answered with another question

 _Struggling to face what can never be faced_ the Joker finished

_Yes, but maybe death can release_

_Something more than we share_ Jason insisted

 _I really don’t know and don’t care_ the Joker sang flippantly

_They’re only human_

_Standing still_

_Doomed to live pushing boulders uphill_

_Only human after all_ they sang together

_So they give and they take_

_Hoping someone will help break their fall_

_They will pray, curse, live, die_

_Never knowing their truth_

_Is another man’s lie_

 

The Joker cackled gleefully, dramatically gripping the bars of his cage in an attempt to get in Robin’s face. He playfully stuck his tongue out like a dog, cackling maniacally when Jason leaned back in disgust. He sniffed and turned away from the Joker to sing his next lines.

 

_Eat, sleep, love, hate_

_Like a leaf blowing in the wind_

_Watch them all vacillate_ the Joker cut in

_They’re only human_

_They can’t see_ they began together

 _All the years they could give you and me_ the Joker cackled gleefully

 _Only human after all_ they continued

_So they give and they take_

_‘Till their silly hearts break_ Ryan growled

_Looking down from above_

_I’m intrigued by their love_ Jason sang as he watched Dick

 

The music stopped as Nightwing struck down the last criminal. “Hmm seems ol’ bird brain has finished and will be coming back soon,” the Joker mused as he watched the TV. “I’ll be taken to Arkham soon little birdy. Indulge your old man and visit him, hm?” the Joker asked, a cruel smile never leaving his lips.

Robin snarled, “you can’t count on it _Joker._ In a week’s time, you won’t be making anymore jokes.” The only response he was given was hysterical laughter.

 

* * *

 

True to his word the next scene took place in Arkham. Someone had broken into the Joker’s cell and Nightwing and co. had rushed over without a second thought as to where Robin was. The sight they were greeted with definitely surprising. There stood the Red Hood with a gun to the Joker’s head. “Freeze!” Nightwing yelled as he pointed his own gun at the Red Hood. “Put your weapon down and your hands on your head” he commanded.

The Red Hood merely scoffed. “Ha. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that it’s rude to interrupt someone?” he asked harshly. Nightwing was about to retort when there was a bang and the Joker slumped to the ground, a grotesque smile still plastered on his face. Nightwing and his team were frozen in shock. The Red Hood had just killed a high profile criminal right in front of them.

“P-put the weapon down and t-take off your helmet” Nightwing tried to command, although he couldn’t help but stutter slightly. The Red Hood scoffed at Nightwing’s pathetic command, but he responded anyway.

“You want me to take my helmet off?” he asked sarcastically, not even lowering his gun for a second. “Alright but you asked for it. You won’t like what you see.” Then in one smooth motion he removed the helmet and sneered at them. The characters on stage reacted in shock because the face of Robin grinned back at them. The audience’s gasps and cries of shock heavily outweighed the actors. Even though they had previous knowledge on the fact that Jason was the Red Hood, they’d had no idea that he was going to reveal himself.

Even though the budding romance was only acting on Robin’s part, some people still thought they’d get a happily ever after, after the Joker was dead. But this was the equivalent of Hans’ ‘if only someone loved you’ scene. He was ripping Nightwing’s heart out because he clearly didn’t care at all about Nightwing based off of his sinister grin at Nightwing’s reaction.

“Y-you?” Nightwing stuttered. “Why?!” he demanded harshly. It was all he could do, his brain wasn’t catching up to all that was happening. Robin laughed at him.

“You didn’t see this coming? And I thought you were a great detective” he mocked. At Nightwing’s desperate anguished look he ‘rolled is eyes’ – even though it wasn’t very obvious to the audience. “I did all of this because no one else would. How many people has the Joker killed? How many more would he have killed? That’s not even counting all the people he’s hurt,” Robin practically yelled in frustration.

“The police weren’t doing anything! They never do anything but shoot citizens and protect the very criminals that they should be arresting! My way solves things and the people are realizing it!” he said waving his gun around.

Nightwing’s eyes were pleading as he spoke. “What are you going to do now? You’re trapped” he said. Robin raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well I’ve gotten my revenge and started a new train of thought that will not die out anytime soon,” he mused. “My job’s done.” He said with finality before cocking his gun to his head.

“Wait!” Nightwing screamed as he lunged towards Robin. But he was too late. An audible bang rang through the room and Robin collapsed on the floor, unmoving. The audience gasped in shock at the sudden suicide. This play was incredibly dark, they really should have seen it coming. Nightwing fell to his knees, heartbroken. The lights began to dim and everyone but Jason and Dick left the stage. Dick sat beside Jason’s limp body as he began to sing softly without an instrumental accompaniment.

 

_People always talk about it_

_I had always lived without it_

_I thought I understood its magic spell_

_It can take your breath away or_

_So that’s what the poets say_

_Guess they oughtta know_

_I suppose they’re right_

 

The reason that they decided to abruptly end this was because of the impact it would have on Nightwing. Robin’s complete dismissal of his feelings combined with the death and the cruelty of it was all that would be needed to break the detective. He had opened up for the first time and this is what he was paid back with.

 

_I never believed that anything_

_Could hurt this much_

_Don’t see it coming ‘till it’s_

_Standing right in front of you_

_When love comes_

_It’s easy to regret_

_It’s painful_

_And love is never fair_

_When love comes!_ He cried, yelling at the audience in anguish

_Just let it slip away!_

_It’s not worth it_

_I wish I never knew it_

_When love comes_

 

After he finished the last note the light slowly faded and the curtains closed. Dick turned off his microphone and let out a breath. Jason sat up and did the same. They looked at each other before laughing and hugging. “We did it” Dick cheered. “Opening night is practically over! All we have left is the bows.” Jason smiled weakly at him and began to get up, dragging Dick with him.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s go face the music.”

 

* * *

 

“Oh my god you guys were so great! I’m so proud of you!” Ms. Harper squealed as soon as she was able to talk to Jason. Roy clapped him on the back and Kori joined Ms. Harper in crushing him to death.

“I bet you’re glad that I convinced you t try out for the part” Roy said smugly. Jason rolled his eyes bud didn’t contradict him as he managed to escape the death grip Ms. Harper and Kori had him in.

“Yea yeah, you were right” he said, grudgingly accepting Roy’s hug. “Did you hear that there’s legit reporters here? Do you think they’ll give us a good review” Jason asked excitedly, changing the subject. This time it was Kori who rolled her eyes.

“Of course they will,” Kori snorted, “You guys were utterly fantastic and deserve the good review!” Jason smiled at her in thanks. The reviews would be posted the next day in the newspaper. The whole club would be gathering some time to read it together and to discuss what happens next.

 

* * *

 

Jason was in the middle of listening to his English teacher over analyze _Les Miserables_ when the announcement came. There was a long drawn out beep and a couple thumps Jason suspected to be dropped books, before the secretary began to speak. “Um, sorry for the interruption but can all of the students involved in the musical please report to the auditorium.” Mr. Williams sighed in exasperation but gestured for him and that one kid in his class who was an extra to leave anyway.

They ran down the halls, being joined by others on their way to the auditorium. When they all got there they sat down and waited impatiently for the director to arrive with the reviews. A couple seconds later, the director to arrive with the reviews. A couple seconds later, the director walked in carrying a tablet. “Ok let’s get down to business.” He joked as he sat down. You could hear the chorus kids singing _‘Be a Man’_ from Mulan under their breaths. Jason smiled slightly, but along with many others leaned forward in anticipation.

“I’m really proud of all of you! You all did such a god job yesterday, I couldn’t ask for a better cast” he began. Jason bushed slightly, but he didn’t let the praise distract him too much. Hearing the director compliment them was gratifying sure, but he’s sort of biased. It was sort of his show after all. Even if Jason helped write at least 1/3 of it. At everyone’s anxious looks, he rolled his eyes. “Ok, ok!” I know you want to hear what the critics said” he rolled his eyes.

 _“Last night was opening night for Gotham Academy’s production of the new musical_ Under the Red Hood _co-written by Philip Burnham and the student actor who plays the Red Hood, Jason Todd; the school’s resident scholarship student._ Under the Red Hood _is a one sided love story between a lead detective and a detective who is secretly a serial killer. Cliché? You might think so, but Jason Todd (Red Hood/Robin) and Dick Grayson (Nightwing) brought the story to life in a new and interesting way.”_

 _“Ryan Richards (the Joker) did a fantastic job at portraying the ‘true’ villain of the plot – the insane killer clown – he truly did a great job at making this deeply flawed character realistic. Dick Grayson was amazing as the brilliant but kind-hearted detective. And later he made our hearts ache with his sorrowful reprise of_ When Love Comes”

 _“But Jason Todd’s rendition of the betrayed Robin and the broken Red Hood really stole the show. He brought the character to life and it was almost as if he was Robin. The plot was brilliant and – in a surprising turn for a high school play – the acting was on point. You can bet I’m going to see this musical again. I greatly advise you go see it.”_ The director finished.

Jason was frozen in shock. His first thought after hearing that was ‘wow the director’s name is Philip Burnham???’ which in hindsight is rather ridiculous. He hadn’t even known the name of the director. He couldn’t really comprehend what he’d just heard. They’d gotten a _good_ review from actual critics who’d seen Broadway productions. That was completely incredible! They were a _high school_. It was hard enough for an actual Broadway cast to get a good review but they were just children. There was a bet of silence before everyone broke into loud cheers. Dick launched himself at Jason and knocked him to the floor, all the while chattering about how great all this was.

Jason remained frozen for a bit before he joined in with the celebrating. They all spent to rest of the day going over various other reviews that were on the internet.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the week’s performances went very similar to the first with minor mistakes and/or improvements. During this time Dick managed to find every excuse possible to spend time with Jason. It wasn’t like Jason minded either. But Dick’s friends were beginning to get annoyed.

Dick was their friend first but they hadn’t seen much of him lately. All he’d been wanting to do was go down to the slums to visit the café that Jason worked at so that he could flirt with him. They were pretty tired of the two musical stars dancing around each other. “God Dick, why won’t you just ask him out? He’s definitely interested.” Miranda complained.

They were all (minus Jason of course) over at the Wayne Manor for a study session, but it had quickly dissolved into a gossip session. They were all trying – in vain – to convince Dick to make a move. Dick wasn’t exactly cooperating. “What?” he said blushing, but he wasn’t fooling anyone with his shy boy act. Seeing that they weren’t taking his bullshit, he let out a sigh. “I know, but I do have a plan.” As he explained his plan the girls began to smirk evilly. This worried the boys, but they found themselves nodding along and just as invested as the girls.

 

* * *

 

It’s the night of the final performance, and if you ever been in a musical – tor any performance really – then you know that the final performance always… goes a little different from originally planned. There was always bound to be screw ups (most likely on purpose) at some point in the show. Since they were high school students of course they took it to an extra level. It started with simple costumes changes. Instead of the sinister and damaged make up that the Joker usually wore, there was the more carnival like makeup with a matching clown suit.

He was still terrifying, just more like Pennywise from Stephen King’s _‘It’_ than super villain mass murderer. When Jason pulled off his helmet for the first time to reveal his identity t the audience, it was revealed that he’d managed to put his somewhat short hair into multiple pig tails. Coupled with his very serious expressions it made a rather funny sight. Dick simply wore a bright pink tutu and pranced around the stage.

Then they got a little carried away and began using different props. Instead of their guns they had either water guns or guns that shot out a small flag with the word ‘BANG’ on it. They didn’t do much else for fear of angering the director too much, but if they all emphasized their asses and were a _little_ (read: overly) sassy in their dances, then nobody mentioned anything.

They were over the top, but they had a lot of fun doing this last performance.

They’d just finished the final act and it was time for the final bows (Jason had removed his pigtails but Dick refused to do the same with his tutu. He was attached to it now. It also worked as his armour because he was nervous). And he was nervous. He was a bit relieved because the performances were over and he wouldn’t have to focus on both schoolwork and this. He was also sad that it was over because he really enjoyed being in this musical – especially working with Jason. But the reason that he’s nervous is that he’s about to put his plan in motion and ask Jason out.

Dramatically. In front of everyone.

…

In a tutu…

…

Yeah, this was bound to be… interesting…

He shook himself and walked confidently onto the stage at is cue, bowing at the same time as Jason. They were the last ones to return at the same time as Jason. They were the last ones to return to the stage, so all that was left was the final thank you’s from the director, Jason and himself. The rest of them stood onstage and waited while the director was grabbing a microphone and hopping on stage.

“Wow! I can’t believe how amazing this show turned out to be! Definitely better than I ever expected” he started, causing the leftover cheering to die down. “I’d just like to thank Jason Todd for helping me write, arrange, and adapt this musical. “ Jason waved a little at the crowd. “Now there’s one thing I’d like to say before I let Jason and Dick close off this performance. I’ve received an offer that I’ve accepted. _Under the Red Hood_ will be going on Broadway over the summer and I’d like for Jason Todd, Richard Grayson and Ryan Richards to join me and star as the original Broadway cast”

Dick’s jaw dropped. What? The director handed the microphone to an equally stunned Jason. “I don’t know about the others, but I’m definitely taking you up on that offer to star on Broadway!” he said somewhat breathlessly. Dick nodded frantically to indicate his agreement with Jason’s statement. “Anyway I’ just like to say thank you for this amazing opportunity. I never imagined I could get this far. You guys have been a great crowd and I look forward to working with the director once more.” Then he passed the mic to Dick.

Oh god it was time.

“Okay, so my speech is nowhere near as eloquent as those before me” this got a laugh out of the audience. “And what I was going to say has already been said, so I’m going to move on to the other half of my speech.” He took a deep breath as his palms began to sweat. The audience shifted nervously. “So over the course of working on this musical, I’ve gotten to know my co-star very well. And because I really couldn’t think of a better way to do this beforehand… Jason will you go out with me?” he asked.

Jason stared at him for a moment, letting Dick sweat. “You dork, I was wondering when you’d ask.” He scoffed. “Of course I’ll go on a date and draped an arm over Jason’s shoulders.

“We hope you enjoyed the show! Come see us on Broadway!” Dick beamed.

As Jason smiled and waved at the audience and leaned into Dick’s side, he couldn’t help but think that this school year turned out to be a lot more promising than he’d originally thought.

**Author's Note:**

> pls comment even tho ik it's shit. Pls don't hate friends.


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